| 


C 
MUS 


VOLUME 1. 


T 


5 
= 
Oo 
Ae 
& 
— 


we pene ecy nnaer ieee neean se ne 
on thy te Weerge: gene! 


THE UNIVERSITY 
OF ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 
80 


v( 
F 962. 
v. | 


=~ LIBRARY 


FOMCRTON. 


Return this book on or before the 
Latest Date stamped below. A 
charge is made on all overdue 


books. 
U. of I. Library 


NOY 21 1939 
dU 16 1941 


14685-S 


FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART 


Dr. Epwarp Dickinson, Editor-in-Chief 


Professor Emeritus of the History and Criticism 
of Music at Oberlin College. Author: ‘‘The 
Spirit of Music,” ‘‘The Education of a Music 
Lover,’”’ ‘‘ The Study of the History of Music.’’ 


VOLUME ONE 


Dav Eric BERG, Managing Editor 


Author: ‘“ Personality Culture by College 
Faculties.’’ ‘‘ The Art of Listening,” ‘‘ Choral 
Music and the Oratorio.”’ ‘‘‘ Beethoven and the 
Romantic Symphony,” 


FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART 


XVI. 
XVII. 
XVIII. 
XIX. 
XX, 


In Twenty VoLUMES 


TITLES OF VOLUMES 


. INTRODUCTION To Music 
. THE FoLtk Sonc AND DANCE 


Tue Art SONG AND ITS COMPOSERS 


. THE GrowTH oF EXPRESSION IN HARMONY 
. THE Art oF LISTENING 

. CHoRAL Music AND THE ORATORIO 

. THE Music or THE CHURCH 


GREAT PIANISTS AND COMPOSERS 


. THE ORGAN, COMPOSERS AND LITERATURE 
. THE VIOLIN, "CELLO AND STRING QUARTET 
. WHo’s WHO IN THE ORCHESTRA 

. Earty AND CLassic SYMPHONIES 


BEETHOVEN AND THE ROMANTIC SYMPHONY 


. MopERN SYMPHONIC ForMS 
. Earty ITALIAN AND FRENCH OPERA 


MopERN FRENCH AND ITALIAN OPERA 
GERMAN AND RUSSIAN OPERA 

MoperN TENDENCIES IN Music 

Music AS A SOCIAL Force IN AMERICA 
GLossaRY oF TERMS AND INDEX 


FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSICAL ART 


Epwarp Dickinson, Litt.D., Editor-in-Chief 


VOLUME ONE 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


By 
DAVID ERIC BERG 


THE CAXTON INSTITUTE 


Incorporated 
NEW YORE 


Copyright, 1926, 
By Davin E. BERG 


The colophon of the Caxton Institute 
used on our cover and title page repre- 
sents Y ggdrasil, which according to Norse 
mythology is a mighty ash tree support- 
ing the whole universe. It symbolizes 
Existence, and is the Tree of Life, 
Knowledge and Fate. 


aged 


r 
to 
Q 
e 
vw? 


. 
; 
\ 
ts 3 
ew 
C 


Te” 


MUSH 


CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE 
I 
NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


FOREWORD Me argh Bie a Sets MBN ANY) 
Music THE UNIVERSAL ART... 
Music’s PLacke AMONG THE OTHER ARTS 
THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND . 
Music IN THE INORGANIC WoRLD 

Music AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS 


MusIcaL ELEMENTS IN THE SPEAKING VOICE 
-EFFEcT OF SOUND ON THE HUMAN Bopy . 


Man’s ABILITY TO Express Music . . 
Music ExpressivE or MANn’s Psycuic SELF . 
ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF Music .. . 
BANATIVE, VALUES OF Music:'. -....., 


- 10 


Ne Ess 


- 20 


Music Voices MAN’s ATTITUDE TOWARD THE 


epee ra, , Reem hdd 
EO ANT): (QOCIETY |, um Scie ae el ee 
Music AMONG SAVAGE RACES . 
Music AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS 
Use or Music sy THE CHURCH 
GrowTH OF FoLK SONG ... 
SocraL Usts or MeEDI#VvAL Music 
Tue Marvurine or Musicau Art 
Music THE Mopern ART... 
REL MRO PEt cs Ug UW ek eye, es 


[v] 
670326 


CONTENTS 


II 
SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


"Tan MATERIAL OF MUSIC. . >) <3) eee 
THE QUALITIES OF MusicaL SouND . 
TIMBRE AND ‘OVERTONES... yep 
COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT . 
WHE HUMAN (BAR) 0000. 0 
SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN Ear 

THE ScALE ESSENTIAL TO Music . 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE . . . 


THE NATURAL AND [EMPERAMENTAL SCALES 


THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR 0 .W8 
RHYTHM THE DyNamics oF Music 
THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY 
DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES ... 
ForRM IN SIMPLE MELODY . ...__.. 
SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS . : 
Uniry or Moop of a Sone 2a 
FEELING FOR Key ofr A SONG . ... 
THe RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY 
THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 4.5) 0) is) ol 


[vi] 


e 


FOREWORD 
AMERICA’S MUSICAL AWAKENING 


AS unprecedented enthusiasm for music has 
swept America since the war. From every 
hand pours in new testimony of our growing 
devotion to music. The most dramatic element 
in this crescendo of musical development is the 
radio, at first a novel toy, which now has be- 
come a household necessity and daily furnishes 
diversion and instruction to millions of listeners. 
The proportion of radio programs which do 
not include at least a small proportion of music 
is negligible. The radio has stimulated enor- 
mously the performance of music and _ has 
brought music to the attention of thousands who 
otherwise would not hear it. 

Dozens of new symphony orchestras have 
been organized since the war, and hundreds of 
choral societies, glee clubs, and music societies 
have been formed. A number of opera com- 
panies generously financed by wealthy music 
patrons have been organized. Every year these 
companies and the symphony orchestras make 
extended tours throughout the country to cities 


[vii] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


which are not capable of supporting such organ- 
izations. Recently the college glee clubs have 
formed an alliance to meet in annual competi- 
tion and to increase interest in chorus sing- 
ing. Movie houses with excellent orchestras 
also introduce thousands of persons to the 
beauty of good music. 

Fifty years ago only three or four colleges 
admitted music as a part of their course of in- 
struction. Now only a few of the most con- 
servative have been able to resist the pressure 
of influence which has favored its inclusion. 
Classroom instruction in music is supplemented 
by recitals, choruses, quartet and ensemble 
work, and orchestra practice. All the public 
school systems include music as a part of their 
grade work, and many high schools offer four 
year courses in music, including such subjects 
as history of music, theory, and composition. 
Normal schools train music supervisors and 
teachers. Music publishers and school text- 
book houses vie with each other in equipping 
the schools with new and interesting material 
for music study. 

Some of the greatest of our artists annually 
maintain summer schools where mature students 
and teachers come from all parts of the country 
to receive advanced instruction. Several foun- 
dations have been established by wealthy men 


[viii ] 


FOREWORD 


interested in the cause of music or from the 
funds left in trusteeship. Fellowships have 
been provided for gifted students to study 
either in this country or in Europe. Eminent 
musicians and music teachers offer lectures to 
the general public on the understanding and ap- 
preciation of music. Lecture bureaus send out 
speakers to clubs throughout the country to lec- 
ture on the history and appreciation of music. 
Some of our most eminent orchestral leaders 
give special concerts to children and also to busi- 
ness men, explaining the structure of the orches- 
tra and the principles of enjoying symphonic 
music. 

‘Thousands of women’s clubs meet regularly 
to study the works of the great composers, 
either under the direction of their own members 
or under the direction of specially qualified 
leaders. The annual outgo for music club work 
is in excess of two million dollars a year. ‘These 
figures are exclusive of orchestras, operas, pub- 
lic school and college expenditures, and all the 
moneys spent on artist attractions by commer- 
cial managers. In a twelve-year period the 
National Federation of Music Clubs has raised 
its own club audiences from 76,000 to 1,500,- 
000. Each one of these persons has attended 
an average of four concerts for the year, bring- 
ing the total concert attendance to 6,000,000! 


[ix] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


Each section of the country boasts its own 
music magazine or periodical with thousands of 
subscribers. Practically all of the leading news- 
papers employ music critics who report the 
musical events taking place in their respective 
cities, 

The phonograph, although now somewhat 
overshadowed by the radio, still performs yeo- 
man service in acquainting people with the best 
as well as the latest in musical production, and 
reproduces to the listener all varieties of music 
from ragtime to opera, or from jazz and the 
‘blues’? to symphonic selections and the solo 
renditions of great artists. At first radio broad- 
casters thought that all the public wanted was 
jazz and popular and lighter forms of music, 
but recently when radio listeners have made 
their real wants known, they have discovered 
an astonishing demand for the more substantial 
-forms of music. Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, 
Wagener, Ischaikowsky and others of the ‘‘clas- 
sical’? composers are demanded by the radio 
public. ‘The broadcastings of the symphony 
orchestras and eminent artists bring in thou- 
sands of letters of approval and requests to 
duplicate their performances. 

This interest in music is immensely impres- 
sive in quantity. Many authorities, however, 
are inclined to question its quality, and the de- 


[x] 


FOREWORD 


gree to which the world’s great music is really 
appreciated. While the demand for good music 
by the radio audiences indicates a decided high 
level of musical interest, it does not, of course, 
prove anything as to the actual quality of musi- 
cal understanding. The increase of attendance 
at orchestral concerts and the recitals of emi- 
nent artists might indicate merely the public’s 
involuntary response to well-managed adver- 
tising campaigns by the concert bureaus, and the 
satisfaction of cleverly aroused curiosity. Music 
appears so elusive and mysterious to the aver- 
age person, and can so easily be used to satisfy 
idle curiosity, pride, or the desire to witness 
mere virtuosity of technique, that it is difficult 
to determine where the spurious interest ends 
and where genuine understanding begins. 


VARYING APPEALS OF MUSIC 


To many people music is merely a succession 
of more or less pleasing sounds; to others the 
rhythmic beat and accentuation is all-important. 
To some music means a reveling in appealing 
melodies, while to a smaller number of people 
music is a significant, comprehensible art of 
expression, enjoyed for its sensuous elements, 
but more appreciated because they detect in it 
a deeper meaning from which they may derive 


[xi] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


profound satisfaction, genuine inspiration, and 
substantial cultural benefits. 

All too many people are merely interested in 
a much advertised and famous performer. They 
attend a concert to hear a great pianist, violinist, 
or singer, partly out of curiosity, and partly to 
be able to remark casually to their friends that 
they had heard some eminent artist sing or play. 
What the artist sings or plays is of minor im- 
portance to this group. No genuine musical 
taste or appreciation can be developed until 
listeners come to regard the music performed 
at least of equal importance with the artist, if 
not of even larger significance. While in most 
European countries it is the composer that is 
featured, in America managers emphasize the 
performer, so that American concert-goers are 
not wholly to blame for their greater interest 
in performers. 

Much confusion is due to a general lack of 
knowledge on the part of our people of the 
purposes, principles, and facts of the art of 
music. The older generation did not have the 
opportunity of studying music in the schools and 
‘many others have not had access to sources 
which would provide the necessary information. 

‘Music is a tremendous force, but not every- 
one who is exposed to it ‘takes’ the infection. 
On the contrary, a reasonable amount of 


[ xii ] 


FOREWORD 


preparation, as well as guarding and guiding 
the incipient growth, is necessary to ensure satis- 
factory returns. The fact of the matter is that 
nine-tenths, or more, of the American people 
do not patronize high grade concerts and re- 
citals because they cannot get out of the per- 
formances anything to take with them. ‘Their 
lack of back-ground is such that they are, not 
tone-deaf but music-deaf—a vital distinction,” 
states J. Lawrence Erb. 


PROBLEMS OF THE LISTENERS 


To many an untrained listener attendance at 
a concert is like entering into a mysterious and 
baffling world, where he can detect no guide 
posts to point his way. He is immersed in a 
sea of sounds, with cascades of tones tumbling 
and clashing about in the utmost confusion, ris- 
ing and falling, swelling to a startling loudness 
or dying away in a faint whisper. By what 
laws of enunciation and progression are these 
sounds governed? By whom and how were 
they conceived? How are they produced? 
Wherein lies their merit? What do they sig- 
nify? Of what value are theyeto me? might 
naturally be asked by the bewildered listener. 

For a proper understanding and true appre- 
ciation of music the listener must know quite 


[ xiii] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


definitely the answers to these and similar ques- 
tions. The act of listening seems simple enough. 
All one has to do is to sit quietly, and permit 
the stream of sounds that swirls against the ear- 
drums to be translated into exquisite auditory 
sensations and a succession of delightful rev- 
eries. For in one sense that is avowedly the 
final purpose of music, to arouse just such feel- 
ing states in our consciousness. The passionate 
response of the feelings to the beauty of the 
music is the ultimate thing, and theory and facts 
are thrown in the discard. But this state of 
half-hypnotized absorption must be counter- 
balanced by exact information; feeling and 
knowledge must cooperate. At the moment of 
hearing, feeling appears all-dominant, but it 1s 
the antecedent knowledge and trained judgment 
that direct feeling, so that it will not go astray 
and waste itself on what is unworthy. 

Enjoyment of music must not degenerate into 
an emotional self-abandéniment. The feeling 
response should be accompanied by a keen real- 
ization of the composer’s purpose, and a knowl- 
edge of the material and range of effects at his 
disposal, so that the listener may be able to 
judge with some degree of discrimination the 
craftsmanship of the composer. Such knowl- 
edge combined with repeated experiences of 
hearing good music will soon develop into a 


[xiv] 


FOREWORD 


foundation of sound musical taste and judgment, 
in addition to extending enormously his capacity 
for sheer enjoyment. 


DEMAND FOR THIS SERIES 


During the past few years a great number 
of books purporting to teach the appreciation 
of music have been published, some of them 
excellent and some of them pitifully inadequate. 
Many of them are incomplete or fragmentary, 
for they do not cover the whole field of music. 
They afford too slight a background, or they 
do not provide a deep enough explanation of 
the fundamental principles of music. Some of 
them devote all their attention to the mere 
analysis of the technical aspects of the subject, 
and afford no clue as to the meaning or signifi- 
cance of music. Such authors write on music 
as do many teachers of literature who devote 
their time to the analysis of the structure of a 
poem or novel and pay no attention to its mean- 
ing or beauty. Many writers forget that music 
is an art of expression which dramatizes man’s 
emotional states and experiences, and treat it 
merely as an art of representation. Some works 
are histories of music, which furnish merely 
dry facts and dates. What is needed now is a 
work that is at once instructive, comprehensive, 


[xv] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


and inspiring, and that will interpret to Amer- 
ica’s army of concert goers and music lovers the 
marvelous heritage of music of the past and the 
amazing musical development of our present 
era. 

FUNDAMENTALS OF MusIcAL ART is offered 
in response to the repeated urgings on the part 
of concert goers and musicians that a treatment 
of the major forms of musical composition 
especially adapted to the needs of the layman 
and the amateur in music be prepared. It 
furnishes our numerous listeners and students 
and lovers of music a background of knowledge 
that will help them to interpret intelligently the 
wealth of musical offerings that are so prodi- 
gally placed at their disposal, and thereby in- 
crease their enjoyment of the art of music. 


PLAN OF THIS WORK 


The work introduces the reader to the im- 
mense wealth and range of musical knowledge. 
The major forms of musical composition are con- 
sidered; the folk song and dance, the art song, 
the choral forms, the Passion and the oratorio, 
the piano, the organ, the violin, the violoncello, 
the string quartet, the orchestra, and opera. 
An explanation of the most significant works of 


the most famous composers, a discussion of 
[xvi] 


FOREWORD 


what constitutes excellence of performance of 
the various instruments, what values we can ex- 
pect to derive from music, what is the range of 
effects obtainable from the various instruments, 
and what are the principles of design and form 
of some of the more important musical forms 
are also included. ‘The biographies of the most 
famous composers, a history of the development 
of the more important musical forms as well 
as an exposition of the most significant forces 
that have influenced the development of musical 
art receive their proper treatment. 

This work lays the foundations for a genuine 
musical taste. Although for the average per- 
son the serious study of the technique of an art 
with its necessary long period of preparation 
and discipline is impracticable, he can through 
a consistent study of the major principles and 
the most representative products of an art be- 
come as it were infected with something of that 
same elevation of thought and feeling and the 
spirit of beauty that inspired the creator. It is 
in this way that he is able to share in the genuine 
cultural benefits of an art. 

FUNDAMENTALS OF MusicaLt ArT empha- 
sizes the expressive side of music, it shows the 
reader why a composition is a living document 
of beauty and a revelation of the creator’s 
imagination. The mood and message of a work 

[xvii] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


are revealed to the reader, not merely the dead 
form and structure, although it is true that a 
deep understanding of structure often increases 
the enjoyment of the work. | 

The treatments of the various subjects are 
concise, clear, and authoritative, so that the 
maximum amount of information is gained in 
the minimum space of time. 

It is self-explanatory, assumes no previous 
knowledge of music, and to insure perfect 
clarity a glossary of terms is included. Each 
volume can be read in less than two hours. 
The subject matter is arranged according to the 
major musical forms, as folk-song, art song, 
piano, organ, violin, etc. This makes it conve- 
nient for the reader who wishes to review the 
appropriate volume in anticipation of attend- 
ance of a certain specific concert. Moreover, 
there is included what is difficult to find any- 
where else, a statement of the principles 
whereby one is enabled to judge of the relative 
merits of the performance on various musical 
instruments. 

The reader is encouraged continually to hear 
music, especially the music which is discussed 
and analyzed in this work. Concerts, recitals, 
the piano, organ and other musical instruments, 
phonographs, and player pianos will provide the 
mediums for hearing music. The music that 

[xviii] 


FOREWORD 


comes over the radio will also furnish immense 
facilities for listening practice and analysis. 
For music is an art of sound and must be heard 
to be appreciated, and cannot be understood by 
merely being read about. 

This series is intended primarily to lead the 
reader into the magic world of music, to open 
up fresh vistas of beauty and new realms of 
delight that have too long been obscured from 
his view. To infect the reader with something 
of that same sensitivity to beauty, and with 
moods similar to those that stirred the imagina- 
tions of the composers and inspired their out- 
bursts of melody, is a further aim of this work. 

It is especially designed for the person who 
has little or no ability for performance, or lacks 
the time to develop it. It is not intended to 
train performers—but aims to open for the 
reader the doors of that enchanted world of 
music created by the great tone poets, Beethoven, 
Schubert, Chopin, Wagner, Grieg, MacDowell, 
Bach, Tschaikowsky, Verdi, Liszt, and many 
others who have contributed so much to the 
artistic wealth of the world. 

To enjoy fully one must not only hear with 
the ears, but with a trained mind and imagina- 
tion. This series will furnish those suggestions, 
points of view, and principles necessary for this 
richer and deeper enjoyment of music. 


[xix ] 


INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC 


I 
NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


MUSIC THE UNIVERSAL ART 


E who remains unresponsive to the delights 

of music misses one of the most exquisite 

joys vouchsafed to the spirit of man. For music 

is the most intimate and moving art appealing 

to man’s sense of beauty, and affording sheer en- 

joyment. No person can afford to deny himself 
the pleasure and stimulation of music. ” 

Music is the most universal of arts in its 
appeal and distribution. Throughout the whole 
course of human history, among all tribes, 
races, and nations,—the most savage tribes of 
Africa, the ancient nations of the Orient, medi- 
aeval Europe, and all modern peoples—music’s 
magic power has ruled continuously. Music has 
been a fact as natural and universal as speech 
itself. 

During the entire span of the individual’s 
life, from the cradle to the grave, music accom- 


[1] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


panies all special occasions and pervades all the 
common acts of life. The crooning lullaby of 
the wistful mother, the joyous outbursts of 
childhood, the lilting dances of youth, the jubi- 
lant accompaniment of the wedding march, and 
the solemn funeral dirge attend the major 
periods of life. 

Almost without exception, churches of all 
denominations find music indispensable in their 
services. Without music the art of dancing 
would languish and die. The military organ- 
izations of all nations utilize the stirring music 
of the military band. Numerous industries 
have commenced to use music as a means of 
obtaining more and a higher quality of work 
from their employees. No social affair is com- 
plete without some kind of musical perform- 
ance. Music is an invaluable adjunct in the 
restaurants, the hotels, the theaters, and the 
movie houses, and a home without some kind 
of musical instrument is indeed bleak and 
dreary. 

Wherever we go we are met with the gra- 
cious presence of music. It is inescapable and 
its charm and beauty should be fully appreciated 
and enjoyed. 

What then is the nature of this glorious art 
of sound which exercises such a powerful and 
universal appeal? What constitutes its appeal? 


[2] 


MUSIC’S PLACE AMONG THE OTHER ARTS 


What are its sources of power? What charac- 
teristics distinguish it from the other arts to 
account for its unique position? 


MUSIC’S PLACE AMONG THE OTHER ARTS 


From one point of view the fine arts may be 
divided into two groups:—the imaged arts, 
which appeal directly to the imagination and 
include poetry and the novel; and the sense arts, 
which make a direct appeal to the senses of 
sight, touch, or hearing and include music, sculp- 
ture, painting, and architecture. 

Among the sense arts music stands unique, 
for it alone deals with the medium of sound 
and appeals to the sense of hearing, whereas 
sculpture, painting, and architecture appeal to 
the sense of sight, although their products are 
sensible to touch as well. 

From another viewpoint the fine arts may be 
divided into the arts of space, or the spatial 
arts, the products of which, such as sculpture, 
painting, and architecture, exist in space; and 
the arts of time, or the progressive arts, which 
represent action taking place within a period of 
given time, such as poetry, the drama, the novel, 
and music. 

The spatial arts, based upon man’s keen de- 
light in form and color, seize upon one pleasing 


[3] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


instant in this world of change, cast it into a 
permanent form, and thus satisfy his innate 
craving for the enduring and the substantial. In 
painting, for example, the artist chooses from 
the multitude of forms and colors found in ex- 
ternal nature those best suited to fit into his own 
created design, while in music the composer 
from the world of sounds selects those es- 
pecially adapted to convey his particular mes- 
sage. [he spatial arts work in the world of 
space, whose peculiarity i is fixity or permanence, 
whereas music operates in the realm of time, 
whose nature is succession, eternal flux and flow. 
The spatial arts are the arts of the permanent, 
while music is essentially the art of the imper- 
manent. ‘The spatial arts are more rigorously 
imitative, more subservient to external forms 
than music, which is under no requirement to 
imitate directly, and imitates only to produce 
some calculated effect. 

Music, with its power of enacting the eternal 
drama of change, is more flexible and respon- 
sive to the principle of life, whose essential 
quality is motion, than are the spatial arts. 
Music, the very soul of motion, is a more in- 
timate, a more powerful, and a more thrilling 
art, because it more effectively dramatizes the 
never ceasing flow of man’s spirit. Music is a 
glorification of sound, capable of producing 


[4] 


THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND 


effects of incomparable beauty and compelling 
agitation, 


THE THREE REALMS OF SOUND 


Let us examine briefly the world of sound, 
so that we may know something of the medium 
of music. When any object is struck, it vibrates 
and gives forth sound. All bodies are in a state 
of greater or less motion or change, rubbing, 
colliding, and clashing, and hence all giving 
forth some form of sound. The whole material 
universe is a vast mill in which every particular 
thing is grinding or being ground, is striking 
against or is being struck by something else, even 
down to the minutest particle of dust. The cry 
of this universal conflict of matter is sound. 

On our earth the air is the chief medium for 
the transmission of sound vibrations. Every 
point of collision of material objects, even if in- 
finitesimal in size, becomes a center of radiating 
vibrations which, communicated to the surround- 
ing atmosphere, continue in everwidening circles 
towards the aerial boundary of our earth. We 
live in a weltering chaos of sound, most of it 
unperiodic, unpleasant, and unmusical. Between 
the chaotic realm of noise of the natural world 
and the realm of organized human music there 
exists a third realm of sound, partaking of the 
nature of the other two, namely: the quasi- 


[5] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


musical notes of Nature herself, inorganic and 
organic. 


MUSIC IN THE INORGANIC WORLD 


The inorganic world affords many evidences 
of the universal presence of music. 

“The rolling sand of the slope of a Sinaitic 
mountain sends out a deep, swelling, vibratory 
sound, sometimes approaching the roar of 
thunder, sometimes resembling the notes of a 
violoncello, or the musical whir of a humming 
top. he echoes tossed to and fro among the 
mountains in melodious tones testify that the 
framework of the earth with the resilient at- 
-mosphere is a mighty instrument of music. The 
exquisite echo under the dome of the baptistry 
at Pisa carries a full chord in ravishing sweet- 
ness, and holds it long in a ‘slowly dying fall.’ 
The shells by every sea murmur continuously 
with a musical secret of their own, telling of 
the universal harmony. 

‘Everything in Nature seems keyed to take 
its part in the cosmic symphony. ‘The composite 
keynote of external Nature is middle F, which 
the Chinese claim to have discovered five thou- 
sand years ago, the root-tone called Kung, from 
which all others sprang. This tone is heard, 
according to Silliman, in the roar of a distant 
city, in the waving foliage of a large forest, and 


[6] 


MUSIC IN THE INORGANIC WORLD 


also in the thunder of a railroad train rushing 
over a bridge, or through a tunnel. The 
Coliseum has its keynote, as does every solid 
structure. ” Powerful and continued vibrations 
corresponding to the rate of its keynote will 
wreck a structure, no matter how substantial. 
This fact may account for the downfall of the 
walls of Jericho, for the procession of priestly 
trumpeters during the seven days’ circuit may 
have struck the keynote of at least some portion 
of them. It is well known that a bell tower will 
sway responsively to a peal of bells harmoni- 
ously struck, and that the rhythmic tramp of 
soldiers upon a bridge has operated to wreck it. 
Thus soldiers always ‘break step’ when march- 
ing over a bridge.” * 

Perhaps the most universal form of natural 
music is the beating of the surf upon the sand 
or rocks of the shore. Here we seem to detect 

not only strongly marked rhythm, but also the 
_ rudiments of melody as well; and perhaps even 
harmony is present in the union of sounds made 
by the wash of the long rolling waves against 
the irregular contour of the shore. Every 
lover of the sea experiences a distant, sensuous 
pleasure from the sound of the regular wash 
and rolling of its waves. During a high wind 


1John H. Edwards, “God and Music.” The Baker & 
Taylor Co., New York. 
[7] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


or'a storm, it rises to a majestic booming that 
makes the very earth tremble. In the deafening 
tumult of Niagara Falls we seem to hear the 
elements of an ordered gamut of massive tones. 
In the ripple of the brook, in the threatening 
ragings of a stormwind, in the crashings of the 
thunder, and in the sighing of the winds of the 
forest we perceive a musical periodicity. 

The ancient Egyptian statue of Memnon is 
said to have daily intoned a morning hymn when 
the rising sun touched and heated the cold marble. 
‘Everything the sun shines upon,” states Horace 
Bushnell, ‘“‘sings or can be made to sing, and 
can be heard to sing. Gases, impalpable 
powders, and woolen stuffs, in common with 
other non-conductors of sound, give forth notes 
of different pitches when played upon by an 
intermittent beam of white light. Colored stuffs 
will sing in lights of different colors, but refuse 
to sing in others. -The polarization of light 
being now accomplished, light and sound are 
known to be alike.’ Flames have a modulated 
voice, and in the pyrophone can be made to sing 
a definite melody. Wood, stone, metal, skins, 
fibers, membranes and every other rapidly 
vibrating substance,—all have in them the po-— 
tentiality of musical sound. Even the rhythmic 


2 Horace Bushnell, “Religious Music.” F. A. Brown, 
Hartford. : 
[8] 


MUSIC AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS 


life processes of plants may be heard with deli- 
cate instruments recently devised. 


MUSIC AMONG THE LOWER ANIMALS 


Animate nature as a whole is endowed with 
the power to produce musical sounds at will. 
Among the animals and the lower order of life 
rhythm is usually present, but melody is exceed- 
ingly limited, and harmony is unknown. 

Bird songs are rightly enough so termed by 
analogy and although their songs have little of 
the rational and none of the spiritual character 
of human song, scientists claim that birds use 
the intervals of the true musical scale. Mr. 
Henry W. Oldys, of the United States Biolog- 
ical Survey, asserts that besides the third in- 
terval recognized in the song of the cuckoo, 
many other birds use that and other musical 
intervals as correctly as the average human 
voice. He cites as examples the Carolina wren, 
song-sparrow, field sparrow, chickadee, wood- 
thrust, chewink, wood-pewee, and robin. Also 
in the employment of exact rhythms and simple 
melodic phrases, birds exhibit what he regards 
as true avian music. The fact remains, of 
course, that birds have attained the average of 
their musical skill in unknown prehistoric times, 
but have never evolved a scientific system of 


[9] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


musical tones and forms nor arrived at a definite 
expression of emotional or psychic states. 

Combarieu, writing about the musical sounds 
of the lower animals, reads into their incoherent 
noises a deeper meaning. 

“Witness the distracting and deafening con- 
cert, with its weird rhythm, which on summer 
nights, after the overwhelming heat, all kinds 
of beasts keep up in the fields. ‘This grandiose 
and rude concert has a reason and a meaning; 
and it is by listening to it that we have some 
chance of understanding the soul of Nature. 
With the first shades of night there seems to 
descend upon the beings here below an irresist- 
ible need to give more intensity to life, to per- 
petuate it in new and more beautiful forms. 
This is part of love, and therefore of something 
more general. Involuntarily we think we can 
seize in its flight the voices which the evolution 
of things assumes, the imperious cry of living 
beings who yearn and clamour for progress.” ® 


MUSICAL ELEMENTS IN THE SPEAKING VOICE 


Finally, a kind of natural music is evident in 
the tones of the human speaking voice. Rhythm 
and melody are always present in the speech of 
deep feeling, with the flow, inflections, and 


3 Jules Combarieu, “Music, Its Laws and Evolution.” Kegan 
Paul, Trench, Triibner & Company, London. 


[10] 


EFFECT OF SOUND 


modulations of the words, while voices differ 
as much from one another as do musical instru- 
ments. Some voices are deep and sonorous, like 
the tones of a bass viol, others are rich and 
moving as the ’cello, or clear and sweet as the 
flute. A few voices, like that of Madame Sarah 
Bernhardt, even while speaking in a language 
one does not understand, not only give keen 
sensuous pleasure, but also have the power to 
move one to tears by the quality of tone alone. 

Thus throughout the ages man has lived in 
a world of omnipresent sounds, as universal as 
matter, force, light, and air, which have been 
pleasant or hideous, soothing or terrifying, sad 
or gay, varying from the paralyzing crashes of 
thunder and hurtling avalanches to the shrill, 
almost imperceptible pipings of minute insects 
or the soft sighing of zephyrs through the leaves 
of the forest trees. 

‘Now why is music such a universal, such a 
peculiarly ee and gratifying form of 
art? 


EFFECT OF SOUND ON THE HUMAN BODY 


To begin with, the medium of music is sound, 
which even in its crude, unorganized form is a 
powerful agent for arousing man’s feelings and 
emotions. The vibrations of sound are slower, 
more massive in their effects than the finer, 


[11] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


subtler, and perhaps less potent vibrations of 
light. The terrific vibrations of a detonating 
cannon will split the eardrums and knock a man 
flat on his back. ‘The whole body will tremble 
to the roar of a waterfall or the thumping of a 
big bass drum. Sound waves can affect forcibly 
and directly the whole body of man, which 
though vital, is material, and thus will vibrate 
in sympathy with them. ‘The vibratory effects 
of sound appear so immediate, so intimate, and 
so forceful that a corresponding emotional state 
is instantaneously set up in response. The 
sound of a gigantic avalanche rushing past is 
much more terrifying than the mere sight of it, 
majestic though it may appear to the eye. 

Some scientists contend that during one stage 
in man’s development, before the appearance of 
sight, he was guided wholly by the sense of 
hearing, that most of his impressions were 
gained through his auditory contact with the 
external world, and that his only means of com- 
munication with his fellows was through the 
medium of sound. If such a condition actually 
existed, it would serve to explain largely the 
tremendous effects that sound has on man’s con- 
sciousness and emotional nature. 

The power of music is something basic and 
universally stimulating to all forms of life, 
reaching down into the very sources of life and 


[12] 


EFFECT OF SOUND 


starting them to flowing anew, often with in- 
creased vigor. Music appears to satisfy some 
innate vibrational. hunger of the organism as a 
whole, and also of its constituent unit, the cell. 
The cell, minute though it may be and insig- 
nificant though it appears in comparison with 
the bulk of the whole organism, is an inde- 
pendent unit of life. It has its own laws of 
birth, growth, and activity, and its own sphere 
of sense and satisfaction. Our feeling of well- 
being is the sum total of the microscopic satis- 
factions of our billions of cells. Let their well- 
being or existence be assailed by an inner or 
outer force the size of a pin’s point, and our 
consciousness is instantly informed of the fact. 
In one ‘sense we hear with every cell of the 
body, and every cell sends in to the mind its 
individual microscopic message, thus reinforcing 
the response of the central consciousness. 

Such facts lead musicians to believe that the 
origin of man’s delight in music is essentially 
biological, that it is an age-old inheritance, the 
result of man’s continued reaction to his external 
‘environment, and not only that of man, but of 
a large part of the animal kingdom. For 
animals are certainly influenced by music and 
some of them, as we know, make it. How far 
down in the scale of animate nature the musical 
response may be extended cannot be accurately 


[13] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


determined. Music apparently has an intimate 
connection with animal life, a connection that 
is primordial and powerfully effective. The in- 
fluence of music starts with a peculiar response 
in the organism, stimulating it to thrill, to leap, 
to cry out frequently, and especially to move 
rhythmically, as in a dance. Music seems to 
have the power to revitalize every living thing 
which may possess the sense of hearing. 

It is well known that music stimulates the 
body of the savage more powerfully than that 
of civilized men. So compelling is the urge of 
music that savages will dance until utterly ex- 
hausted. Again, youth is more easily stirred 
to bodily action by music than old age. Our 
youth will dance all night and only stop when 
the orchestra leaves. We may therefore con- 
clude that the response to music belongs funda- 
mentally to mere life as such, and that its charm 
in such cases is largely, though not wholly, 
physical. 

The more mature and civilized people be- 
come, the less physically demonstrative and the 
more psychically impressionable they are to the 
raptures of music. Observe an audience at an 
orchestral concert. It is not only silent, but it 
also sits as motionless as possible, and even 
during the rendering of a captivating Strauss 
waltz, little or no bodily response is visible. All © 


[rad 


MAN’S ABILITY TO EXPRESS MUSIC 


have trained themselves to subdue the instinctive 
bodily reactions and expressions. In some 
forms of musical composition the complications 
of melody and rhythm have become so great 
that the human body is unable to follow and 
express them adequately. Even in such cases 
the influence of music is not rendered less 
potent. Its form of influence has been trans- 
formed into the psychic. 


MAN’S ABILITY TO EXPRESS MUSIC 


Susceptible as man has always been to the 
influence of music, he has developed remark- 
able abilities and gifts for musical expression. 
Greatly inferior to certain lower animals in 
some points of structure and in the power to 
do certain things, man possesses, nevertheless, 
those qualities of reason, emotion, and spirit 
that have enabled him far to surpass any of his 
more naturally gifted rivals. Nor must Nature’s 
gifts of structure be minimized, for with brain, 
nerves, ear, throat, and hands marvelously 
fashioned and correlated for perceiving and 
producing musical sounds man also unites the 
unique ability of selecting, arranging, and set- 
ting down in a permanent form musical crea- 
tions, dramatizing his own feelings and reac- 
tions. Man has explored the realm of physical 


[15] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


vibration and sound, has discovered its intricate 
maze of governing laws, has probed the sphere 
of his own anatomical structure and physiology, 
and has applied his knowledge of them in the 
creation and expression of music. 


MUSIC EXPRESSIVE OF MAN’S PSYCHIC SELF 


Music is more than organized sound produc- 
ing a pleasant effect upon the ear, 7 1t)isue 
medium of expressing man’s innermost psychic 
life. Exactly how a series of forms in the 
physical world born and dying in a quick suc- 
cession can produce another series in the psychic 
world is unknown at the present stage of our 
knowledge. To answer this question would be 
to touch the very heart of the mystery of life. 
But mysterious as this is, it is no more mys- 
terious than why the sight of any object, or in 
fact, why the sensing of anything should produce 
in us any effect whatsoever. ‘The reason that 
music seems so mysterious in its effects is that 
it works in the realm of sound, which cannot 
be touched, handled, or seen, and so is not per- 
ceptible to those dominating senses of man, 
sight and touch. At the present time man is 
the abject slave of sight, and hearing as a means 
of obtaining definite knowledge and impressions 
is greatly inferior in power. 


[16] 


MAN’S PSYCHIC SELF 


The most psychic and immaterial of the arts, 
music above all other arts can mirror our feel- 
ings and emotions:—the joy of life, the sweep 
and surge of passion, the tenderness of love, the 
poignancy of despair, in fact the whole of that 
vast gamut of feeling that constitutes so large 
a part of our conscious life. Music in portray- 
ing the unrest and turmoil of life, its struggles 
and disappointments, can produce a variety and 
contrast of effects unparalleled by any other art. 
This fact explains in a large measure the tre- 
mendous influence of music, for the emotional 
and feeling life of man is more elemental and 
basic than the intellectual. In the vast march 
of evolution, eons upon eons old, intellect was 
the latest faculty to develop, and consequently 
it is light-timbred, and all too often impotent 
in the face of our volcanic feelings and passions. 

Translated into music, these emotions and 
feelings assume a heightened beauty and dignity. 
As vague ideas are born in the mind of man 
and are rendered coherent through the medium 
of language, so these fleeting emotions, when 
transmuted into music, become the purest and 
most intimate expression of man’s feeling con- 
sciousness and assume a significance previously 
unsuspected. Music not only mirrors the emo- 
tions but quickens, enriches, and organizes our 
feeling life. By stirring our emotions, music 


[17] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


can fire the will to determined action, and by 
arousing to activitity our subconscious minds, it 
can release the creative powers of the imagina- 
tion. To attain a well balanced, fully developed 
character and personality the refining influence 
of music, if not indispensable, is at any rate 
immensely valuable. 


ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF MUSIC 


Music is inherently associative in its power. 
It is an art we enjoy together in the drawing 
room, in the church, in the concert-hall, or in 
the theater, and the mere act of association in- 
creases and enhances immeasurably the charm 
of music. 

How many listeners have had their keen 
pleasure during the performance of great music 
many times multiplied by the realization that 
hundreds of others were sharing it with them? 
Great music brings us together, heart to heart, 
irrespective of birth, position, culture, or ability. 
Intellectual conceptions separate men, and clas- 
sify them into different levels of intelligence. 
Feeling, on the other hand, exerts a powerfully 
socializing influence, and there is no more 
efficacious medium for arousing the fundamental 
human emotions and establishing a harmony of 
feeling than music. 


[18] 


ASSOCIATIVE NATURE OF MUSIC 


At no time during the history of our country 
has the socializing influence of music been more 
clearly demonstrated than during the recent 
World War. During this period, in our great 
army camps and among the soldiers of the 
American Expeditionary Force, military bands, 
group singing, and musical programs by lead- 
ing artists and trained musicians proved invalu- 
able in arousing the enthusiasm and maintaining 
the morale of our citizen army. 

So convincing was this experience that edu- 
cators are now employing group singing inten- 
sively in the school curriculum to stimulate a 
community of interest and to combat anti-social 
tendencies among the pupils. Profoundly sig- 
nificant is such a movement, for the future suc- 
cess of our democracy depends ultimately upon 
maintaining a spirit of friendliness and coopera- 
tion and keeping alive the humanitarian ideals 
of our great republic. Democracy needs music 
to humanize, refine, and elevate it. 

A clear realization of the vast socializing ~ 
potentialities of music by composers and musi- 
cians will in turn quicken and intensify enor- 
mously their creative energies. Mazzini in his 
essay on the “Philosophy of Music’’ envisages 
the possibilities of this art. ‘“The power of 
Genius will be strengthened a thousandfold by 
a sense of the greatness of the social aim, the 


[19] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


vastness of the means at his disposal, and the 
possibility of achieving an immortality to which 
none dare to aspire at the present day.”’ 


SANATIVE VALUES OF MUSIC 


Music is sanative and restorative to all per- 
sons, whether wretchedly ill or merely fatigued 
and ill at ease, for by stirring and invigorating 
the cells of the body to renewed activity and 
by restoring their broken rhythm, it accelerates 
the vital processes of the whole organism. 

More and more the medical world is begin- 
ning to realize and apply the therapeutical prop- 
erties of music. For various kinds of mental 
diseases,—melancholia, despondency, and neu- 
rasthenia, for patients of certain types of per- 
sonality recovering from wounds and accidents 
that have inflicted severe shocks to the nervous 
system, and for similar disorders, music has 
proved of definite aid in promoting and hasten- 
ing recovery. If careful listeners will stop to 
compare their sense of well-being before and 
after a fine concert, they will be astonished and 
delighted at the greatly increased feeling of 
harmony, joy, and vitality which the music has 
produced. Music of the right kind, listened to 
correctly and not over-indulged in, will be found. 
to prove as sanative and stimulating as any form 
of physical exercise. 


[20] 


MUSIC AND THE INFINITE 


MUSIC VOICES MAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARD THE 
INFINITE 


Music, whose medium of transmission is air, 
the most intangible of substances, is the least 
material of arts. Its form appears to be more 
completely sublimated and its spiritual content 
is freer from sensuous association than in any 
of the other arts. Music voices man’s noblest 
ideals and highest aspirations, his deepest feel- 
ings and unutterable longings. It expresses his 
yearnings towards the Infinite, the Absolute, and 
Source of all. Words cannot describe the Crea- 
tor, a statue or a painting cannot portray Him, 
but a great symphony or a noble requiem can 
express our attitude of mind, the state of our 
feelings and emotions toward Him. For man’s 
imagination works largely within the restrictions 
of the sensible world, and we cannot imagine 
conditions of life in a world of two or four 
dimensions. 

Although man can conceive of an immortal 
soul, he cannot represent it adequately, but must 
wed it to an attenuated body of at least two 
dimensions in painting, or three in sculpture. 
Dante was compelled to clothe Virgil’s im- 
mortal soul in a kind of body. The Greeks 
embodied their conceptions of their gods in 
three-dimensioned marble. Michael Angelo in 


[ar] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


his painting “The Creation of Man” in the 
Sistine Chapel, represented God as a huge 
bearded old man. Miailton had to give his hero 
Satan a gigantic stature and frame. Any at- 
tempt of the other arts to depict the Infinite 
results essentially in absurdities. But music, 
such as, for example, the third movement of the 
“Ninth Symphony” of Beethoven,* can awaken 
in us our attitude or feeling towards the Omni- 
potent or arouse that state of bliss that we con- 
ceive indigenous to Heaven. Music is rightly 
said to be “the one art capable of revealing the 
Infinite.” 

The aged Gounod, looking forward to a 
speedy departure from the scenes of his artistic 
labors and triumphs, dwelt much upon the 
spiritualizing influence of music, and said, “It 
gives a foretaste of the immateriality of the 
future life.’’ A Persian sage expressed the be- 
lief entertained by the best among his people 
in this way: “The soul purified by music longs 
for communion with higher beings and purer 
spheres; and, though darkened by the opaque- 
ness of the body, is yet prepared for converse 
with the spirits of light, standing around the 
throne of the Almighty.” 

Thus music renders one more deeply respon- 


4See Volume xiii, “Beethoven and the Romantic Sym- 
phony.” 
[22] 


MUSIC AND SOCIETY 


sive to what is noblest and finest in life, to 
beauty, to love, to moral ideals and religion. 
It serves to lift us above our usual plane of 
mundane concerns into that higher plane of ex- 
perience where all is beauty, proportion, and 
harmony, and where our ideals and aspirations 
take on a new lease of life, and are able to 
assert themselves and function as indubitable 
realities. 


MUSIC AND SOCIETY 


From time immemorial and_ universally, 
music has been bound up with the most intimate 
and vital functions and customs of society. In 
fact, it has always been an integral part in the 
texture of man’s whole social fabric, as indis- 
pensable as speech, religion, or government. 

Because of the possession of emotions and 
feelings common to all human beings, because 
of other quite general reactions of the individual 
towards external nature, and because of simi- 
larity of social habits and customs, we shall 
expect that certain types of musical expression 
will belong to almost all races. Thus we find 
music voicing man’s attitude towards the various 
phenomena of Nature, such as the sun, moon, 
wind, sea, and mountains. Moreover, such 
forms as the lullaby, the funeral dirge, wedding 
songs and marches, songs of love and passion, 


[23] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


war songs and war dances, songs celebrating 
victories and reciting the glorious deeds of an- 
cestors, songs and dances of devotion, celebra- 
tion, festivity, and entertainment are common to 
people in all stages of advancement, whether 
savage, barbaric, or civilized. 

With these facts in mind let us first see how 
they are borne out in a study of savage or primi- 
tive music. 


MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES 


The Bushman dances almost doubled up in 
his low tent to the accompaniment of uncouth 
songs for his amusement. [he Hottentots 
whistle shrilly an ear-splitting jargon to their 
frenzied dances. ‘The African Damaras’ idea 
of a musical performance consists in the imita- 
tion of the sounds of the galloping and trotting 
of domesticated animals,for which they cherish 
a high regard. ‘The Mazamboni warriors dance 
wildly in serried phalanxes to the chorus of on- 
looking men, women, and children, shrieking at 
the top of their voices, aided by deafening beat- 
ings of great drums. Certain East African 
tribes thresh their rice to the rhythm of an ener- 
getic dance, clapping their hands and stamping 
their feet on the rice until it is almost ground 
to a powder. In Dahomey, West Africa, the 

[24] 


MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES 


king dances and sings solemnly during the fes- 
tivals which precede human sacrifices, and is in 
turn answered by a huge chorus with a lugu- 
brious accompaniment of a ponderous cymbal. 

In the southern part of India a few wild races 
in the Nilgiri hills intone their melancholy 
funeral lamentations to the music of a tabor. 
In Siam singing is the ruling passion of the 
people. The audiences their king grants to am- 
bassadors are carried on in singing. The people 
go to the temples singing and dance during all 
their festivals. In Burma the natives almost 
invariably drone monotonous tunes during their 
work. The Dyaks of Borneo execute their 
fierce, wild war dances to the deafening beatings 
of tom-toms, emitting loud, bloodcurdling cries 
.all the while. In New South Wales the natives 
sing while paddling their canoes, keeping time 
with their paddles. 

The songs of the Maoris of New Zealand 
are adapted to all phases of life; they row in 
time to a melody which is sung by a chorus 
_sitting in canoes, they dance to music and chant 
many of their prayers in a musical tone. It is 
customary to celebrate all important events, 
suitable words being adapted to well-known 
melodies. One of the Maoris’ songs, called the 
“Totowaka,” is admirably suited for accompani- 
ment to a large number of people working in 

[25] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


perfect accord when drawing huge blocks of 
wood or pulling up their canoes. 

The Karoka Indians of California have a 
solemn propitiation dance which is given by the 
men. Clad in their fantastic attire and standing 
in a long row, they all join in a well-known 
chorus jingle after two or three singers have 
- finished a verse of improvised song. 

At Shawanee, in Tennessee, the young In- 
dians play the flute in the evening, producing 
pleasing, plaintive melodies, to coax the maidens 
from the village, so that they may declare their 
love for them in the quiet woods or on the banks 
of murmuring streams. 

The ancient Aztecs were very fond of music 
at their festivals, devotions, and sacrifices in 
honor of their gods. Among the Incas of Peru, 
the poets had to keep the national annals. In 
fulfillment of this duty they selected the chief 
events of their history for their ballads and 
many famous names have been preserved for 
future generations in these rural songs. 

The practice of music is found among vir- 
tually all the South American Indian tribes. In 
Paraguay, the Abipones at the birth of a boy 
perform certain plays which last eight days, and 
which are interspersed with the beating of 
drums, loud singing, and excessive drinking. 

The Eskimos in Greenland enact a peculiar 


[26] 


MUSIC AMONG SAVAGE RACES 


performance which consists of a sort of musical 
duel during which an insult may be wiped out 
by a public tournament of ironical songs, the 
audience acting as umpire. 

‘Thus we perceive that even among the rude, 
uncultivated savages and barbarians all over 
the world, in Africa, Asia, Australia, North 
America, and South America, music is an in- 
tegral part of their social and individual life, 
and indeed the social expression of music 
generally predominates over solo performance. 

Almost every social function or act of savages 
is associated with some form of dance, accom- 
panied by some crude kind of music. The 
preparation for war is preceded by dancing. 
The women dance and sing all day to strengthen 
the courage of the men who are engaged in 
battle, and victory or defeat is celebrated by 
music and dancing. Most religious ceremonies 
are attended by music and dancing. ‘The song 
and dance constitute an indispensable factor in 
the incantations of the magician or medicine 
man. ‘The people’s chief form of amusement 
also is the song and dance. Men, women, and 
children sing and dance at work, worship or 
play, war or peace, and during birth, marriage, 
or death. In short, music appears to form an 
ever present element in the emotional and social 
life of all uncivilized peoples. 


[27] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


As pure music practically none of this primi- 
tive music of barbarous people has any value 
to civilized man, for it is weird, uncouth, and 
often hideous, and so unorganized and confused 
that very little of it can be transposed to our 
system of notation and preserved for any future 
reference. The phonograph, of course, could 
record it, and some attempts have already been 
made to do so. The main interest in consider- 
ing primitive music at this point is to gain a 
clearer conception of the universal distribution 
of the musical instinct, and to realize how in- 
timately it enters into the texture of the whole 
social fabric. 

“It is with music as with language; however 
far we may descend in the order of primitive 
people, we should probably find no race which 
did not exhibit at least some trace of musical 
aptitude and sufficient understanding to turn it 
to account.’ ® 


MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS 


When we turn our attention to the civilized 
ancient people, we discover a similar state of 
affairs. 

To the ancient Egyptians, as evidenced by the 
multitude of pictures on the walls of their tombs, 


5 Richard Wallaschek, ‘Primitive Music.” Longmans, 
Green & Co., London. 
[28] 


MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS 


depicting figures dancing and playing numerous 
instruments, music must have had a profound 
significance. 

Among the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, the 
inscribed monuments testify to the art of music 
constantly connected with magical beliefs of the 
people and interwoven with their religious, 
military, and civil life. 

The ancient Hebrews used music and poetry 
to extol Jehovah and to proclaim and to em- 
phasize divine ideas and ideals. The Old Testa- 
ment abounds in passages referring to the use 
of music in the temples and on festival occa- 
sions. The victorious King Saul was welcomed 
with the sound of psalter, tabret, lute, and 
cyther, as was King David upon his return from 
the overthrow of the Philistines. 

Whereas in other civilized countries during 
this period music was used mainly for secular 
amusement, in Israel it was bound up intimately 
with high and fervent religious beliefs and wor- 
ship. The Israelites undoubtedly developed a 
high form of antiphonal choral singing, perhaps 
the original inspiration of ancient Christian 
church music. Besides this, we can gather the 
existence of another music more subtle, bril- 
liant, and voluptuous, reserved for the wealthy 
classes. “A concert of musicians in a banquet 
of wine is as a carbuncle set in gold.”’ Job char- 


[29] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


acterizes the ungodly rich as they ““Who take 
the timbrel and the harp, and rejoice at the 
sound of the organ.”’ 

Eleven centuries before the Christian era the 
Chinese had invented an elaborate philosophy 
of music which was intimately associated with 
their religious rites. 

The music of the ancient Hindus was an in- 
timate and inseparable part of their every-day 
life as well as of all their religious ceremonies 
and festival occasions. They composed hymns 
and music especially adapted to every individual 
and social act. In the morning they sang an 
appropriate song to the dawn. Before all meals 
other fitting songs were intoned, during their 
various occupations music and singing were in- 
dulged in, and at the close of day a hymn to 
the night was sung. In addition, music con- 
stituted an essential element in religious rituals 
and on all special occasions, and was used during 
the hours of recreation, as has been and still is 
the custom of all peoples. 

The Arabs and the Persians were particularly 
fond of instrumental music. The Arabs were 
singularly adept in the manufacture of a great 
variety of instruments whose number :s almost 
fabulous, totaling more than one hundred and 
fifty varieties of stringed instruments alone. 
The endless repetition of a short phrase, which 


[30] 


MUSIC AMONG THE ANCIENT NATIONS 


acted as a sedative paralyzing the will and the 
senses, constituted the sum total of their music. 

The Greeks developed an elaborate system 
of modes, and differentiated music into two dis- 
tinct kinds :—the Dorian music, which according 
to Plato reflected the manly virtues of Sparta 
and was therefore best suited for state cere- 
monials and religious worship, and the Phrygian 
or Lydian music which was supposed to be licen- 
tious and was reserved for feasts and endowed 
with enervating power. Musically, such a clas- 
sification is untenable, but it appeared at the 
time to serve a political purpose. The Dorian 
music, therefore, was used in the education of 
the youth. This deliberate introduction of music 
into the subject matter of education marked a 
distinct departure in the treatment of music, a 
treatment which we have only recently com- 
menced to appreciate. 

The choral chant was the favorite musical 
form of the Greeks. It was highly elaborated 
and prodigally utilized in the choruses of their 
great dramas. Music was used at their special 
functions as well. 

The Romans used music chiefly as an auxiliary 
of the dance and of their extravagant theatrical 
performances, and to a certain extent for mili- 
tary and ceremonial functions. 


[31] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC . 


USE OF MUSIC BY THE CHURCH 


From its earliest beginnings to the present 
day the church has enlisted the services of the 
art of music. Indeed, so intimately was music 
associated with the liturgy of the Catholic 
Church that the final product was an impressive 
and beautiful musical service. Music came to 
be employed by it as an ever present factor for 
stimulating that attitude of reverence and awe 
indispensable to the acceptance of its august 
doctrines and assurances. Many of the most 
illustrious musical geniuses have contributed 
their great abilities to the enrichment of its 
musical resources. 

In Germany, Martin Luther’s powerful influ- 
ence and audacity centered the interest of 
the people and musicians in the newly born 
Protestant Church, which during the next three 
centuries dominated the destiny of musical de- 
velopment in that country. Luther utilized 
vigorous march hymns as a militant force to 
arouse the spirit and enhearten the courage of 
his Protestant followers. The more sonorous 
and majestic folk melodies dynamically rhythmic, 
were bodily incorporated into the revised church 
ritual, and thus was born the impressive choral 
music of the Protestant Church, which in ene 
sense was sacred popular song. From this de- 


[32] 


GROWTH OF FOLK SONG 


veloped the modern hymnody of practically all 
the Protestant churches. 


GROWTH OF FOLK SONG 


The formalistic spirit of the church during 
the Middle Ages effectively retarded a musical 
development within the walls of the cathedrals 
and the monasteries analogous to that which 
was taking place outside. Among the work- 
shops and wineshops and in places of amuse- 
ment and the homes, germinated, grew, and 
blossomed that superb wealth of beautiful folk 
music of Europe, unsurpassed by that of any 
other continent in the history of the human race. 

Undoubtedly one potent factor in the growth 
of the muse of music was poetry itself, for a 
large proportion of folk-tones came into exis- 
tence in connection with the recitation and chant- 
ing of poems and ballads. To add fire and 
color to the tragic tales of courageous ancestors, 
the plaintive tales of love, or other events, the 
declaimer would intone or sing certain dramatic 
passages, invite the audience to joint in a chorus, 
using the while melodies of his own invention 
or those he had learned from other sources. 
This was the practice of the Norse skalds, the 
Celtic bards, and the Saxon scops, as well as 
the less gifted professional entertainers of the 
later mediaeval period. 


[33] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


The ancient Scandinavian skalds celebrated 
the prowess of their mighty ancestors or the 
latest exploits of their audacious, marauding 
Viking chiefs by a kind of impromptu recitative, 
combining both music and poetry. 

‘The early poetry of the land that became 
England was made current and kept fresh in 
the memory of the singers. The kings and 
nobles often attached to themselves a scop, or 
maker of verses. ‘The banquet was not com- 
plete without the songs of the scop. While the 
warriors ate the flesh of boar and deer and 
warmed their blood with horns of foaming ale, 
the scop, standing where the blaze from the pile 
of logs disclosed to him the grizzly features of 
the men, sang his most stirring songs, often ac- 
companying them with the music of a rude 
harp.” ° 

In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the 
troubadours in the south of France, who 
“found” their own melodies, accompanied by 
their jongleurs, or skilled singers, the trouvéres 
and minstrels of northern France, and the 
trobadores of Spain and Portugal, sang of love 
and the deeds of valorous and chivalrous 
knights before the nobility and the royalty of 
these southern countries. The melodies were 


6R, P. Halleck, “Halleck’s New English Literature.” 
American Book Co., N. Y ; 
[34] 


GROWTH OF FOLK SONG 


graceful and pleasing, well adapted to produce 
the desired effect. 

During this time the dance, always a manifes- 
tation of exuberant vitality and of innocent 
diversion, afforded a powerful stimulus to 
musical invention and practice. Many of the 
melodies owe their origin and form directly to 
the dance, so that we have such forms as the 
carol, rondeau, ballad, gavotte, and minuet. 
The young ladies, squires, and knights, and even 
the mature people, lords and royalty, did not 
disdain the study of music, but in many cases 
applied themselves assiduously to its mastery. 
There existed also the instrumental military 
music of the tournament, jousting, and war, 
which was influenced by the new contacts with 
the Arabian civilization during the crusades and 
increased the array of musical instruments. 

Then during the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries we find the minnesingers appearing in 
Germany, journeying from castle to castle, and 
frequenting as honored guests the abodes of the 
nobility. Their songs were less flowing and 
melodious than those of the troubadours, less 
graceful and delicate, but instinct with vigor 
and genuine musical feeling. 

After a century of popularity this form of 
music was supplanted by its ruder, more sturdy, 
and more lowly successor, the plebeian meister- 


[35] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


sang, which became the music of the common 
people of Germany. ‘The meistersang, dull, 
prosaic, and monotonous though it was, brought 
a ray of sunshine and a glint of beauty into the 
drab life of the lowly artisan and humble trades- 
man, and so permeated the domestic life of the 
German people that in few other countries did 
music become such a moving force, so sweet a 
solace, or such a unifying element in the history 
of a people as in Germany. 

Throughout Western Europe during this 
period, vagrant players,—shrewd, keen vaga- 
bonds—journeyed from house to house and 
from town to town, playing for dances or for 
bands of warriors and brigands, amusing ladies 
and nobles in their castles, and furnishing the 
music and entertainment for festivals and cele- 
brations. Certain bands of these strolling play- 
ers even took it upon themselves to give the 
passion plays which had been previously pre- 
sented by the clergy alone. They were the first 
class of musicians to popularize instrumental 
music, for hitherto instruments had merely 
served as an incidental accompaniment to the 
human voice. 


SOCIAL USES OF MEDIZEVAL MUSIC 


In the fifteenth century Guillaume Dufay, a 
Fleming, who took service in the papal choir 
[36] 


THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART 


according to the custom of the period, returned 
to Flanders and there expanded enormously the 
resources of unaccompanied chorus singing. His 
followers and pupils, severely trained in the new 
contrapuntal art and indefatigable in their zeal, 
emigrated to all countries in Europe, set up 
music schools, or took charge of the music in 
cathedrals and monasteries. There was scarcely 
an ecclesiastical, princely, or ducal establishment 
of first rank that did not boast a Flemish 
maestro. 

In Italy the lovely folk music of the people 
finally attracted the attention of the trained 
musicians, who commenced to imitate it and 
write canzoni, balletti, and other lighter pieces. 
From these beginnings developed the beauti- 
ful madrigal, polyphonic in form, which was 
adopted and imitated by all the musicians of 
Europe, Flanders, France, Spain, and England. 

During the sixteenth century, these later 
musical forms of the medieval period were util- 
ized alike by the church for its ritual and by 
the royalty and nobility for religious and recrea- 
tional purposes, 


THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART 


In addition to Europe’s rapid advance in 
choral art, the seventeenth century witnessed a 
marvelous development of other musical forms 


[37] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


and musical instruments. Absolute music, that 
is, music devoid of words, began and instru- 
mental music commenced to rival choral music 
in power and appeal. 

The first efforts at opera with its vocal aria 
and declamatory recitative, the birth of the over- 
ture, the concerto, the literature of the organ, 
and the precursors of the pianoforte, all saw 
the light of day during the seventeenth century. 

Great strides in the construction of stringed 
instruments, especially the violin, together with 
a standardization of the violin’s previous be- 
wildering variety of sizes and shapes, made pos- 
sible rapid improvement in violin playing and 
composition. The improvement in organ con- 
struction prepared the way for the triumphs of 
Johann Sebastian Bach. Domenico Scarlatti of 
Italy and Francois Couperin through their 
original treatment of the harpischord laid the 
foundation for the modern pianoforte style of 
composition and technique. 

Henry Purcell of England and Alessandro 
Scarlatti of Italy elaborated chamber music. In 
the house of Giovanni Bardi, Conte di Vernio, 
originated those innovations in musical form 
which were later to develop into opera as we 
know it today. Bardi summoned to his aid a 
large body of contemporary poets and musi- 
cians, who composed libretti and scores which 


[38] 


THE MATURING OF MUSICAL ART 


approached the operatic form. This movement, 
arrested for a few years, finally moved the fire- 
brand Claudio Monteverde of Cremona to revo- 
lutionary reforms which paved the way for 
Gluck’s modernization of the opera. The con- 
tagion of this newly-born art spread swiftly to 
all parts of Europe. Henry Purcell headed it 
in England, Reinhard Keiser in Germany, and 
Lully ruled the operatic world in France. 
Musical forms which afforded edification and 
amusement for thousands of people were rapidly 
developing. 

The eighteenth century saw the immense con- 
tributions of Handel to the oratorio form and 
of Bach to Passion music and organ and clavier 
forms, the elaboration of chamber music and 
the orchestra and symphony by Haydn and 
Mozart, and the phenomenal growth of opera 
in Italy and France. 

In the nineteenth century occurred the birth 
and development of the art song. The further 
growth of the opera, culminating in the vast 
music dramas of Richard Wagner; the enormous 
enrichment of piano literature; the astonishing 
increase in symphonic forms, and the immense 
contributions by a host of modern composers, 
added greatly to the resources of musical litera- 
ture. 

It was during the nineteenth century there- 

[39] 


NATURE AND APPEAL OF MUSIC 


fore that music came into its own rightful 
sphere. Then after eighteen centuries of slow 
and steady growth, the spirit and form of music 
had so developed that it could express with in- 
comparable force, vividness, and subtlety the 
complex, sophisticated, and daring spirit of 
modern society and the modern individual. 


MUSIC THE MODERN ART 


And now in this modern period we find music 
of all forms and degrees of excellence firmly 
intrenched in all our institutions, the church, 
the school, the theater, the concert hall, and 
present at every turn—in our cafés and hotels, 
in our parks, and in almost every home. The 
mechanical production of music by means of the 
phonograph, the player piano, and the radio, 
and the wide distribution of all of these have 
carried music to practically every home and 
hamlet in the country. 

Musical art, which was once the plaything of 
the princes and nobles of Europe, dependent 
largely upon their favor for its existence and 
development, is now rapidly becoming an indis- 
pensable cultural factor in the lives of everyone. 

Music, like sculpture in the time of the 
ancient Greeks, like Gothic architecture during 
the Middle Ages, or like painting during the 

[40] 


MUSIC THE MODERN ART 


Renaissance, is fast assuming the role of a 
democratic art, available to all citizens, and 
universally beloved and enjoyed. Composers, 
performers, critics, teachers, music publishers 
and manufacturers, and wealthy patrons are all 
laboring to improve the status of musical art 
and to effect its wider dissemination. 

The advance and development of the art of 
music in Europe and America represent in sum 
total the results of the work of thousands upon 
thousands of men and women who devoted their 
whole life-time to the mastery and production 
of music, as well as the scattered efforts of 
millions upon millions of amateurs and music 
lovers extending over a period of approximately 
two thousand years. When one reads over the 
names of the composers, and musicians one is 
amazed at the great number, and is awestruck 
in contemplation of the prodigious amount of 
work and the vast quantity of musical composi- 
tions that must have been poured out. Who, 
realizing this, can question the dignity, value, 
and, in fact, the indispensability of music to the 
human race and society? 


[41] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BurRTON, FREDERICK R. American Primitive Music. 
New York, Moffat, Yard, & Co. 
CoMBARIEU, JULES. Music, Its Laws and Evolution. 
London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Tribner & Co. 
Dickinson, Epwarp. ‘The Spirit of Music. New 
York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. 

GEHRING, ALBERT. ‘The Basis of Musical Pleasure. 
New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 

Hapow, Sir W. H. Music. London, Williams and 
Norgate. 
HANCHETT, HENRY GRANGER. The Art of the 
Musician. New York, The Macmillan Co. 
KREHBIEL, HENRY Epwarp. How to Listen to 
Music. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons. 
McALpINnE, CoLin. Hermaia. New York, E. P. 
Dutton & Co. 

McEwen, Joun B. The Thought in Music. Lon- 
don, The Macmillan Co. 

Parry, Sir C. Husert H. The Evolution of the Art 
of Music. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 

SEyMouR, Harriet A. ‘The Philosophy of Music. 
New York, Harper & Bros. 

SURRETTE & MAson. ‘The Appreciation of Music. 
New York, H. W. Gray Co. 

WALLESCHEK, RicHarp. Primitive Music. London, 
Longmans, Green & Co. 


[42] 


II 
SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


THE MATERIAL OF MUSIC 


UCH of the intangibility of music is due 
to the nature of its material, namely, 
periodic vibrations. Compare the material of 
music, which is vibration transmitted by im- 
ponderable and invisible air, to that of the other 
arts. Sculpture and architecture, for example, 
employ stone, bronze, wood, iron, or other hard 
resisting materials. Even painting utilizes can- 
vas, pigments, crayons, or inks of various sorts 
which can be handled and seen, and poetry uses 
words which are of acknowledged meaning to 
obtain its peculiar effects. In all the other arts, 
the material used is either concrete and pon- 
derable, or else it is familiar and definite in sig- 
nificance. The art of music is the only art which 
utilizes a material which is intangible, unfa- 
miliar, and arbitrarily determined. Small 
wonder that music appears to the uninitiated as 
elusive and mysterious. 
[43] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


Physicists divide sounds into two major 
classes, periodic or musical tones and non- 
periodic or noises. Musical tones are produced 
by an elastic medium, such as a steel string, a 
metal plate, or a column of air, which under the 
impact of an outside force vibrates at a uniform 
rate during a given period of time, usually cal- 
culated at so many per second. Such uniform 
vibrations are termed periodic. All sounds, 
whether musical or unmusical, are compounds 
of tones of various pitches. The sensation of 
noise is due to non-periodic vibrations, or to a 
mixture of vibrations which sound irregular and 
jerky. Even musical sounds, however, contain 
certain dissonant and harsh elements, but these 
are to a large extent drowned out by the regu- 
lar vibrations of the whole body or medium. 


A musical tone produces an impression of defi- . 


nite pitch, whereas noises give at the best a very 
hazy idea of pitch. A keen ear, however, can 
detect the fundamental tones in many noises. 
A noise, too, may occasionally be more agree- 
able than some musical tones as for instance, 
the sound of wind in the trees, or the babbling 
of water in a brook. 

Scientists have selected the stretched string 
as the best means of illustrating and analyzing 
musical sounds, and of formulating the funda- 
mental principles and laws of acoustics. It is 

[44] 


ic ey ae 


THE MATERIAL OF MUSIC 


significant to note that as long ago as the sixth 
century Pythagoras, the Greek discoverer of 
the musical scale, chose the stretched string for 
his experiments. His choice has remained valid 
to this day, because it best exemplifies the action 
both of the human vocal chords and the strings 
of the violin, two of our most important musical 
instruments. 

The stretched string may be thought of as a 
kind of externalized vocal chord, which was 
undoubtedly the first instrument of music, Na- 
ture’s own product, grown in the organism of 
bird, beast, and man. ‘This may serve to ex- 
plain why the violin is considered by many the 
most perfect musical instrument, bearing as it 
does, the closest resemblance to the human 
voice. q 

In studying the laws of a vibrating string, 
which is usually of catgut or of wire, it is fas- 
tened at each end and wound up to a tension, 
and in such a state is struck by a small padded 
hammer. It is important to note that the string 
must be tensed and is thus, as it were, keyed to 
a strong energy, ready to resist the action of an 
outer force, and revealing thereby its spirit and 
character. The string must be flexible, elastic, 
and tenacious. When the blow is struck, the 
string must be flexible enough to vibrate, elastic 
enough to regain its first shape, and tenacious 

[45] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


enough not to be torn apart by the impact of 
the blow. The possession of these properties 
permits periodic oscillations, or vibrations, 
which in turn are imparted to the surrounding 
air, setting the air particles to vibrating in unt- 
son, and producing musical sound. 


THE QUALITIES OF MUSICAL SOUND 


Now this periodic or musical sound is said 
to have three qualities: Pitch, Strength (Quan- 
tity), and Timbre (Character). 

1. Pitch, which is the highness or lowness of 
a tone, depends upon the number of vibrations 
per unit of. time,—usually denoted as so many 
per second,—and becomes higher with the in- 
creased rapidity of the vibrations. Rapidity of 
vibration in turn depends upon four qualities of 
the string: First, its length,—the longer the 
string the slower the vibration and the lower 
the note; Second, its thickness,—the thicker the 
string the lower the note; Third, its tension,— 
an increased tension tends to decrease the thick- 
ness of the string and thus increases the pitch; 
and Fourth, the density of the material of the 
vibrating string also modifies the pitch, which 
varies inversely as the square root of the den- 
sity. For example, since steel is more dense 
than cat-gut, the former is used in the G or 

[46] 


ee een yn ee en 


THE QUALITIES OF MUSICAL SOUND 


lowest string of the violin to provide weight 
without undue bulk. 

2. Strength, the quantity or degree of loud- 
mess or softness of the musical sound, depends 
not upon the rapidity of the vibrations, but 
upon their width and amplitude, which in turn 
are dependent upon the force of the external 
blow. Increased violence of the string’s vibra- 
tions influence the air correspondingly so that 
the ear is more greatly excited. ‘This greater 
violence of vibration can be produced not only 
by the stronger impact of the blow of a hard 
object such as the hammer of a piano, but also 
by an increased pressure of a bow as upon the 
string of a violin. In playing musical instru- 
ments utilizing stretched strings these may be 
caused to vibrate by the bow or by plucking with 
the fingers as in pizzicato on the violin, by pluck- 
ing with finger or pick on a guitar, banjo, or 
harp, or by striking with hammers as in the 
piano. 

3. Timbre. The sounds of various musical 
instruments have a distinctive quality of their 
own called timbre, which constitutes their indi- 
viduality, and which is dependent ultimately no 
doubt, upon the atomic structure, the shape, and 
combinations of the materials in the instrument. 
‘Timbre is the “voice” of an instrument and 
varies among instruments as greatly as the voice 


[47] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


of each animal or each person. This quality or 
timbre of an instrument or voice finds its ex- 
planation acoustically in the fact that a musical 
sound is a compound of a considerable number 
of accompanying tones termed partials, over- 
tones, or harmonics. ‘Their relative strength 
and mixture vary with different substances and 
instruments, and produce characteristic qualities 
of tone. | 
TIMBRE AND OVERTONES 

A string, when plucked by the fingers or 
struck by a hammer, has a total movement in- 
volving the entire string, and, at the same time, 
a number of partial movements involving only 
sections of the string. These smaller yet inde- 
pendent oscillations of parts of the string take 
place between relatively fixed points called 
_ nodes, and superimpose smaller sound waves 
upon the fundamental waves in much the same 
way as smaller wavelets of water are included 
ina large billow. ‘The same process takes place 
with a column of air vibrating in a tube, or 
organ pipe. Taking C below middle C as the 
fundamental tone, the tones resulting from the 
vibrating segments of the string or column of 
air are as follows: 


TIMBRE AND OVERTONES 


Thé sounds above C, the fundamental tone, 
much lighter in intensity, are the overtones or 
harmonics, whose varying compoundings in dif- 
ferent instruments determine their timbre. On 
the other hand, if one were to play on the 
piano only the partials or overtones with the 
fundamental note pressed down, but not 
sounded, this fundamental note would be dis- 
tinctly heard after the partials had been 
stopped. Another demonstration of the pres- 
ence of overtones is to hold the octave and the 
fifth on the piano, strike the fundamental and 
release it, whereupon the octave and the fifth, 
which have not been struck, will be plainly 
heard. In this experiment the pedal is not used. 

These little experiments, which may be tried 
on the piano, illustrate the peculiar character- 
istics of a periodic sound, which, while retain- 
ing its fundamental vibrational rate, divides 
itself into manifold subsidiary sounds, termed 
overtones, and then quickly reabsorbs these into 
itself, a singular process of successive subdi- 
vision and reunion, which when heard by the 
human ear constitutes the characteristic musical 
tones and gives an instrument its special sound- 
color. 

Some of the upper overtones are harsh and 
dissonant even in the case of the string and the 
tube, and serve to impart to a tone a peculiar 


[49] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


tang or bite, which perhaps saves it from being 
too sweetly cloying. The partials of circular 
plates and distended membranes are very close 
in pitch to the fundamental tone and are very 
dissonant. In the case of elastic rods, the over- 
tones are very high and distant from the funda- 
mental, but are equally dissonant. ‘This ex- 
plains the inevitable jangle of drums, tympani, 
cymbals, xylophones, and similar instruments of 
percussion, no matter how carefully constructed 
or tuned. However, dissonant overtones 
quickly fade out, and hence the effect of orches- 
tral and violin music is best at a certain distance. 
Church bells are disagreeable close at hand, 
but agreeable farther away. 

Thus we can see that the ultimate unit of 
music, the sound wave, which exists in reality as 
a sound sphere, is very complex in composition. 
Physicists tell us that sound travels through the © 
air in concentric spheres, like a series of shells 
radiating in all directions, upwards, downwards, 
forwards, backwards, and sidewards, in ever- 
widening spheres of vibrations, and that the 
overtones are secondary vibrations carried 
along with the ever-widening spheres of the 
fundamental tones. 

The bane of musicians and conductors are 
strong winds, prolonged echoes, and competing 
sounds and noises, for these not only destroy 


[50] 


COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT 


the delicate overtones, but the fundamentals as 
well and blur the listeners’ impressions. Pro- 
viding the fitting acoustical setting for musical 
performances is a serious problem. 


COMPARISON OF SOUND WITH LIGHT 


Sound travels at the rate of roSo feet per 
second in air. Light, traveling at the rate of 
186,000 miles per second, proceeds at a veloc- 
ity more than 45,000 times as rapid as sound! 
But the slower sound wave is enormously larger 
than a wave of light. For example, the lowest 
audible sound wave, vibrating 16 times a second, 
is 20 meters or over 65 feet in length, whereas 
a light wave of red, the lowest visible light 
ray, is .0008 millimeter, or .00003 inch, in 
length, so that the sound wave is more than 
26,000,000 times as large as the light wave! 

The ear of a man is so constructed that it 
can only detect sounds at rates vibrating be- 
tween 12 per second to about 40,000 per sec- 
ond. The average limits of sound vibrations 
audible to the human ear vary between 16 per 
second to 30,000 per second, which includes a 
gamut of a little more than g octaves. Of 
light, varying between 375 trillion vibrations 
per second to 750 trillion per second, the eye 
detects one scanty octave of color from red 
to violet. 


[51] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


THE HUMAN EAR 


Sound waves moving through the air arrive 
at that marvelous receiving, transmitting, and 
transmuting organ of hearing—the human ear. 

The external ear, formed of cartilage, cov- 
ered with facial skin, and attached to the skull 
by muscles, serves to gather and converge the 
sound waves into the ear canal. At the end 
of this canal is situated the ear drum, or tym- 
panum, resembling a miniature drum head or 
the transmitting disc of a telephone, which 
transmits the vibrations to the minute ear-bones, 
the smallest bones of the human body. | 

The middle ear contains three small bones, 
named because of their shape, the hammer, 
anvil, and stirrup, controlled by special muscles, 
and contains also the tympanic cavity connected 
with the pharynx by the Eustachian tubes, which 
serve to equalize the pressure of the atmos- 
phere on the tympanum, or ear drum. 

The inner ear, filled with a liquid, consists 
of the labyrinth, which in turn is divided into 
the vestibule, the semicircular canals, and the 
cochlea. The movements of the ear bones are 
communicated to the liquid in the labyrinth of 
the ear in which is situated the cochlea, covered 
with thousands of minute elastic pillars, termed 
the organs of Corti, which are in turn influenced 


[52] 


THE HUMAN EAR 


by the vibrations of the fluid. These vibrations 
are gathered up by the multitudinous nerve 
endings of the two great auditory nerves and 
are transmitted to the auditory portion of the 
brain. ‘Thus sound reaches our consciousness. 

The exact function and action of the pillars 
of Corti, which are said to number 3,000 and 
to which are attached 60,000 fibers, have not 
been fully agreed upon by scientists. 

Some contend, among them the renowned 
physicist, Helmholtz, that the ear consists of a 
multitude of special organs represented by these 
minute fibers, each of which selects from a mass 
of tones the one to which it is especially attuned, 
and transmits its sensation of that tone to the 
auditory center of the brain. ‘This theory is 
largely discountenanced by other scientists. 

The theory generally accepted asserts that 
these fibers are flexible in function, and accom- 
modate themselves to the widely varying in- 
coming vibrations, without any minute and exact 
specialization of structure and function, but are 
aided by previous impressions and _ habits, 
which control and modify their purely sen- 
sational action. In other words, the fibers 
perform not only a physiological, but also 
simultaneously a psychological function, utiliz- 
ing in their action the stored-up knowledge of 
past experiences. 

[53] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN EAR 


The sense of hearing of the trained musician 
and others who work with sounds has reached — 
a high degree of sensitivity. A skillful piano 
tuner can distinguish between a true and a tem- 
pered fifth, where the difference is only one 
one-hundredth of a tone. This would indicate 
an ability to detect over six hundred sounds in 
an octave. A syperior violinist is said to recog- 
nize at least a hundred more, or nearly three 
thousand in the forty notes of his instrument. 
Extremely acute ears can distinguish notes 
whose vibrational difference is that between 
1000 and 1001, or one sixty-eighth of a half- 
tone. When we remember that the notes of 
an orchestra are produced by vibrations ranging 
from 33 to 4608 per second, and compute the 
number of notes played by all its instruments 
during that time, wonder grows to amazement 
that the human ear can perceive, accurately 
judge, and keenly enjoy the innumerable throng 
of musical air-waves thus set in motion. 

‘Hearing is at present the paramount artis- 
tic sense,’ states Combarieu, “‘quite superior to 
that of vision, for its impressions have given 
rise to a language which is practically universal 
among all Western nations, and is fast being 
learned even by the Oriental nations. The 


[54] 


SENSITIVITY OF THE HUMAN EAR 


ear is no longer a machine, the study of which 
belongs only to anatomy and its microscopes, or 
to physics, but an organism into whose tissues 
penetrates every minute phenomenon of a psy- 
_chical order. ‘The ear has a purely organic 
memory, similar to that which stores itself up 
in the fingers of the virtuoso, capable of play- 
ing ‘by heart’ the most difficult compositions, 
while carrying on a conversation on any given 
subject. It compares, it appreciates, and it 
judges, quite apart from the intensty of the 
impact, the distance which separates it from the 
source of emission. It also selects, for one of 
the marvels of its structure is that it not only 
hears, but also, that it does not hear certain 
sounds which, though musical in themselves, 
would render music impossible were they per- 
ceived. It has arrived at such a degree of 
sensibility that certain conflicts of vibrations are 
a positive suffering to it. It distinguishes the 
finest shades. It makes the synthesis of sound, 
and it excels—and that is its superiority over 
the eye—in the analysis of a group of sounds. 

“The eye is unable to analyze its impressions. 
If, for example, we cause to revolve rapidly a 
disc on which bands of all colors have been 
superposed, the eye will only see one result, 
the color white. On the contrary, sound a per- 
fect chord, and, if his ear be at all educated, 

[55] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


the listener will distinguish the three notes, their 
position, and their timbre. He will say whether 
the first note is given by a violin, the second by 
an alto, and the third by a wind instrument. In 
the middle of the rendering of a symphony by 
eighty or a hundred musicians, the conductor, 
sensitive to a slight inaccuracy of tone, will 
direct one of his musicians to tune his first string 
slightly up or down. We may add that the 
eye only properly catches the waves in front of 
it. ‘he ear, on the contrary, can equally well 
receive the waves of sound whether the subject 
be in front, behind, or at the side of the source 
of emission.” + 


THE SCALE ESSENTIAL TO MUSIC 


The essential and distinctive element in music 
as opposed to noise is pitch, the highness or 
lowness of a sound. It is to music what color 
is to painting. Without color of some kind, 
whether it is only the most delicate tint of a 
pastel or the minutest line in an etching, there 
would be no graphic arts. Without pitch, 
melody and harmony alike would be impossible. 
Without pitch all the rhythmic sound effects con- 
ceivable by man would not alone give us even 


1 Jules Combarieu, “Music, Its Laws and Evolution.” 
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., London, 


[56] 


THE SCALE ESSENTIAL TO MUSIC 


a musical phrase, much less a complete musical 
composition. It is the innumerable combina- 
tions of notes of different pitch that render 
possible both melody and harmony. 
Moreover, unorganized tones of varying 
pitch would not alone make music possible, for 
the pitch of notes is practically infinite in num- 
ber. Since pitch is determined by the rate of 
vibrations we could, for example, have a note 
for each rate of vibration from the lowest audi- 
ble limit of 16 vibrations per second to 30,000 
vibrations per second, or practically 30,000 
notes according to such a scheme. If we should 
select the notes according to the variation of 
Y% of a vibration per second we should have 
120,000 notes, a number vastly too great, and 
of a degree of difference so minute as to be 
absolutely unmanageable and impracticable. 
Not even the most highly trained and sensitive 
ear could possibly detect such minute distinc- 
tions of pitch. The average human ear for 
which, in the last analysis, music is intended, 
would be utterly confused and discouraged. 
Therefore, from this series of vibrational 
rates, some must be arbitrarily selected and 
placed in a recognizable relationship to each 
other, in order that the mind may lay hold of 
them and retain them with some degree of pre- 
cision and assurance. This relationship, after 


[57] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


many centuries of experimenting, has finally 
been established and embodied in the musical 
scale. 

The proper function and place of the scale 
in musical art must not be misunderstood. 
Music existed centuries before the scale was 
even conceived of, much less formulated. The 
formulation of the scale is an abstraction, the 
result of experiments, gropings, compromises, 
and manipulations, from the study of music it- 
self. ‘he scale does not create music any more 
than the alphabet creates language. Hundreds 
of languages have never been reduced to writ- 
ing, and considerable modifications would be 
necessary to reduce them to a phonetic alpha- 
bet. Similarly, a great deal of music not built 
on the Eurdpean scale would have to be greatly 
modified to fit into it. 


DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE 


The growth and perfection of the present 
scale have required many centuries, and the 
thought and labor of thousands of men. To 
trace in any detail this development would re- 
quire too much space for our purpose. 

Savages possessed no scale and did not even 
know they wanted one, and thus were worse 
off than the mediaeval Europeans who had 


[58] 


DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE 


none, but at least were in search of one. Even 
those savages who had constructed some sort 
of musical instrument had no means of insuring 
the exact pitch of its notes, even though their 
relationship was fairly permanent. 

That conceptions of the scale have varied 
greatly is shown by the fact that in the large 
number of scales, which in different countries 
and periods have been developed to a fair de- 
gree of maturity, there are not two notes that 
stand in exactly the same relation to one an- 
other. Even the Chinese octave is a little out 
of tune according to their orthodox theory, but 
very probably in the actual practice of singing 
the true octave is utilized. The scales used in 
China, Japan, Java, and the Pacific Islands are 
all pentatonic (five-toned) in their recognized 
structure. The rest of the most notable scales 
of the world are structurally heptatonic (seven- 
toned). Such are the scales of India, Arabia, 
probably Egypt, certainly ancient Greece, and 
modern Europe. 

The Persian scale is very interesting, because 
it is probably the most elaborate scale system in 
the world. The Persians early discovered the 
curiously paradoxical facts of acoustics, which 
make an ideally perfect scale impossible. To 
obviate these difficulties they subdivided the 
scale into seventeen tones, thereby securing true 


[59] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


intervals of the fifth and fourth, a major third 
and a major sixth, and a true minor seventh. 
Theoretically, this is the most perfect scale ever 
devised. In modern times this remarkable sys- 
tem of the Persians has been changed still 
further by the adoption of twenty-four equal 
quarter tones in the octave, which, however, 
does not give such absolutely true intervals as 
the earlier scheme. 

The ancient Greek scale consisted of two tet- 
rachords (four-tones), arranged in such a way 
as to form an octave, essentially the same as 
our modern scale, composed of five whole tones 
and two semi-tones. The Greeks elaborated 
fifteen modes, some of them really duplicate, 
which correspond closely to our various keys. 
The Greek scale theory played a very great 
part in the development of the European scale, 
for the mediaeval churchmen took the Greek 
scale as their basis, and in fact for centuries 
copied it slavishly, considering it perfect, and 
interpreting it, ironically enough, wrongly. The 
Greeks used only two octaves in their musical 
composition, the range of an ordinary voice, 
which proves that their music could not have 
been very passionate or exciting. 

According to tradition, under the direction of 
Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in the fourth cen- 
tury, and Pope Gregory the Great, during the 

[60] | 


DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCALE 


sixth century, the chaotic condition of the 
mediaeval church’s music was cleared away. 
Ambrose is reputed to have authorized four 
of the ancient Greek modes; the Dorian, Phry- 
gian, Lydian, and Misolydian, the latter two 
wrongly named: These were called the au- 
thentic modes. ‘Iwo centuries later, Gregory 
the Great is thought to have authorized four 
additional modes, termed the. plagal modes. 
Later in the sixteenth century four more modes 
were added, and two hypothetical modes, mak- 
ing a total of fourteen modes, two of which 
were not used. These formed with but little 
change the basis of the modern fifteen major 
modes or keys as we now term them. By the 
seventeenth century, the fifteen relative minor 
keys had been formulated. 

When musicians began to discover the artis- 
tic nature of modulation of keys as a means of 
contrast and variety, they began to desire to use 
all the keys. ‘‘But under the old system of 
tuning, B flat was by no means the same 
thing as A sharp, and anyone who played 
the old G sharp, C, and E flat under the 
impression that it was the same chord as 
C, E, and G transposed, was rudely unde- 
ceived by an unpleasant discordance. The men 
whose instincts were genuinely and energet- 
ically artistic insisted that our system must ac- 


[61] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


cept a little imperfection in all the intervals for 
the sake of being able to use all keys on equal 
terms. The struggle was long, and various 
alternatives were proposed by those who clung 
to the ideal of perfectly tuned chords—such as 
splitting up the semi-tone as the Persians had 
done. But in the end the partisans of the 
thoroughly practical and serviceable system of 
equal temperament won the day. The first im- 
portant expression of faith was J. S. Bach’s 
best-known work, the two books of “Preludes’’ 
and “Fugues’’ in all the keys, called by him the 
“Well-Tempered Clavichord.” ? 

Thus was established the modern major 
scale, composed of five full tones and two semi- 
tones, the semi-tones occurring between the third 
and the fourth tones, and the seventh and eighth 
tones of the scale counting upwards. 


THE NATURAL AND TEMPERAMENTAL SCALES 


It was due to the careful researches of physi- 
cists and mathematicians that the exact mathe- 
matical ratios of the various tones of the scale 
to each other were determined. The analysis 
of the natural scale, almost identical with the 
Pythagorean scale, revealed the ratio. Using 


2Sir Hubert Parry, “Evolution of the Art of Music.” 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 


[62] 


NATURAL AND TEMPERED SCALES 


the key-note of the scale as equivalent to 1, 
or unity, the ratios of the natural scale are as 
follows: C1, D%, E &%, F %, G %, A %, B 15%, 
and C (one octave higher) 2. These ratios 
were determined by measuring the vibrational 
rates of the various tones, according to the in- 
ternational concert pitch of 450 vibrations per 
second for middle C. The vibrational rate of 
each octave higher is just twice the ratio of the 
preceding octave. Thus middle C is 450, Ct 
is 900, C? is 1,800, C* is 3,600, etc., while C+ 
me25, © is:t12.5 and so on. 

The notes of the temperamental (or tem- 
pered) scale have a slightly different ratio to 
each other, namely: 


Temperamental Scale Natural Scale 
C—r. r 
D—1.122462 Lu 2G 
E—1.259921 1i2\5 
F—1.334840 1.3333 
G—1.498307 1.5 
A—1.681793 1.6666 
B—1.887749 1.875 
C—2, vs 


By means of the adjustment indicated in the 

above table it is now possible to use any tone 

of the twelve semi-tones comprising the octave 

On an instrument like the piano, as the keytone, 
[63 ] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


and by simply choosing the tones of the proper 
sequence we obtain a scale identical with all the 
others. 

“An ideally tuned scale is as much of a dream 
as the philosopher’s stone,’ states Sir Parry, 
‘“‘and no one who clearly understands the mean- 
ing of art wants it. The scale as we now have 
it is as perfect as our system requires. It is 
completely organized for an infinite variety of 
contrast, both in the matter of direct expres- 
sion—by discord and concord—and for the 
purpose of formal design. The instincts of 
human creatures for thousands of years have, 
as it were, sifted it and tested it till they have 
got a thing which is most subtly adapted to the 
purposes of artistic expression. It has afforded 
Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, and 
Brahms ample opportunities to produce works 
which in their respective lines are as wonderful 
as it is conceivable for any artistic works to be. 
A scale system may fairly be tested by what can 
be done with it. It will probably be a good 
many centuries before any new system is justi- 
fied by such a mass of great artistic works as 
the one which the instincts and efforts of our 
ancestors have gradually evolved for our ad- 
vantage.” * 


3 Sir Hubert Parry, “Evolution of the Art of Music.” 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 


[64] , 


THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR 


THE EVOLUTION OF THE BAR 


The bar in music is the element of notation 
used to divide the notes of a composition into 
its meter. ‘The bar is formed of a succession, 
always regular and indefinitely repeated, of ac- 
cented and unaccented beats. 

The origin of the bar has been the cause of 
much speculation. Plato sees in it a reminis- 
cence of the Absolute, the art of an artist obey- 
ing the law of numbers. Spencer considers it 
as one of the First Principles, which underlie 
the constitution of all things. Others have seen 
in it an imitation of the movements of a pendu- 
lum, of the beat of the pulse, or of the normal 
stride. 

The bar probably had its origin in the fact 
that the savage has a much greater tendency 
than the civilized man to movements repeated 
with regularity, due to his greater freedom 
from clothing and the restrictions of conven- 
tions and complex thought. Miners, in the 
eighteenth century, wrote as follows regarding 
the African negroes: ‘Marching, dancing, 
games, singing, work, everything with them is 
dance in time. The most stupid negroes keep 
time far better than our soldiers, and far better 
than our musicians after a long course of care- 
ful training.” 

. [65] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


In work especially, the savage ignorant of 
technique and lacking proper .tools, makes up 
for this by patience and endurance, which in- 
volves endless repetition of identical move- 
ments. Impelled by instinct and the desire to 
expedite the process as much as possible, the 
savage executes uniform movements in uniform 
spaces of time, which eventually become purely 
automatic. ‘Thus arises periodicity. [he na- 
ture of the periodicity is determined by the 
movement, the muscular action, and the efforts 
of the workers. This effort is characterized by 
tension followed by relaxation, corresponding 
in music to an accented beat and an unaccented 
beat. ; 

This periodicity, leading to the creation of a 
bar, becomes imperative when work is done in 
unison, as in rowing, hauling canoes, rocks, or 
timber, carrying logs, or hauling ropes or 
hawsers. Moreover, periodicity serves to 
equalize the strength exerted by the individual 
so as to prevent a disturbance of balance or 
direction of the work asa whole, and not only 
does it insure uniformity, but it distinctly pro- 
motes morale or discipline, and acts as a definite 
stimulant. Its influence is not only valuable 
physically but psychically as well for it seems 
to release and make available a greater re- 
serve of physical power in the worker. As an 

[66] 


RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC 


instance of this, the French government, in 
building a railroad in Dahomey, was compelled 
to engage a musician to play the flute to in- 
duce the negroes to work at all. 


RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC 


Music is usually said to be composed of three 
major elements: rhythm, melody, and harmony. 
Of these three, we shall discuss rhythm and 
melody in the present volume. Harmony can 
more appropriately be discussed in a later 
volume. 

Rhythm, which we shall consider first, is that 
element which infuses music with vitality and 
pulsation and gives it momentum. The salient 
characteristic of rhythm is periodicity, a perio- 
dicity which groups, dominates, and sweeps 
along the constituent sound waves of the indi- 
vidual notes and chords. We also discern perio- 
dicity in the motion of waves, the rise and the 
fall of the tides, and the diastole and systole of 
the heart. 

Rhythm to many people means merely the 
regular accentuation occurring in each measure 
of a composition, but its meaning and applica- 
tion are much broader. While it is true that 
the accented and unaccented beats of the meas- 
ure constitute an important rhythmic element 


[67] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


in all forms of composition, it must not be 
overlooked that the larger units of a composi- 
tion are likewise subject to the principles of 
rhythm. Rhythm is detected in the crescendo 
and diminuendo of a phrase or a whole move- 
ment of a composition, in the accelerando or 
ritardendo of a section of music, in the subtle 
shadings of phrase against phrase, or in the 
apposition of two or more melodies played 
simultaneously. In the larger forms of musical 
composition we find rhythm within rhythm, sub- 
tle interweavings of contrasting and varicolored 
voices, sonorous billows of sound interfused and 
leavened by musical phrases as delicate and 
elusive as flying wisps of mist, each obeying its 
own laws of rhythm and pulsation. 

Rhythm, in its fullest sense, is a distinctive 
aesthetic creation and not merely a necessary 
and mechanical unit of structure, which per- 
vades and leavens the whole spirit of a compo- 
sition. Indeed, it is as indispensable to the 
essential message of the whole composition as 
are melody and harmony. Compare the rollick- 
ing rhythm of “Dixieland” with the tender, 
brooding spirit of “Sweet and Low,” and judge 
how important an element the rhythm is in de- 
termining the spirit and mood of a song. 

Rhythm in music is thought to derive its 
original impulse from the instinct of man to 

[68] 


e oe 

4 ¥ he as i 4 
Meas aa, 4, i/+ RA bes 
Bae 


RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC 


express his inner state in muscular movements. 
In very primitive music, the rhythmic and 
melodic elements of music are often found in- 
dependent of each other. Sheer, unalloyed 
rhythmic music is found among most savage 
tribes. ‘Thus the monotonous beating of the 
tom-toms or the deafening clashes of cymbals, 
gongs, or rude drums, accompanied often by a 
rhythmic wailing chorus of onlookers, will excite 
the savage to a frenzy. 

All dancing is ultimately derived from ex- 
pressive gestures and movements, which have 
become rhythmic through the symmetrical ar- 
rangements of the parts of the human body, 
rendering difficult irregular repetitions of simi- 
lar movements, for the body in its action will 
instinctively seek for the lines of least resist- 
ance, which in dancing is rhythmic movement. 

Primitive dancing is usually mimic, imitative 
of the most absorbing and significant elements 
of the individual and social life of the savage, 
and involves the excitement of the most power- 
ful passions of the human spirit, rage and 
revenge during the mimicry of fighting, of the 
sex emotion during the representation of love- 
making. As ruder kinds of rhythmic dances 
advance during the process of evolution, the 
significance of the accompanying gestures is ob- 
scured, the degree of excitement decreases, and 


[69] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


the dance becomes refined, so that it consists of 
various well-defined forms of rhythmic motion 
and graceful gesture. Savages all over the 
world combine singing with their dancing, so 
that inevitably their simple melodies are perme- 
ated with the rhythmic element. They not only 
sing rhythmically when regular set dances are 
going on, but also when they are walking, reap- 
ing, sowing, rowing, threshing, or performing 
any other of their daily labors which admit of 
such accompaniment. From some such form of 
combination very probably sprang the original 
rhythmic organization of poetry. 

Many people might ask the question: If 
rhythm has such powerful effects on savages, 
does it not have similar effects on the civilized 
individual? Many authorities claim that 
rhythm produces even more significant effects 
in the sensitive and cultivated individual. 

Rhythm is instinctive. It has its roots in the 
fundamental processes of the living organism, 
in respiration, in circulation, in the swing of the 
limbs, in the swaying of the trunk, and in the 
kinaesthetic sensations of our consciousness. 
Through the influence of rhythmic activity the 
minute atoms of our cells are quickened into 
renewed activity and self-regeneration, and the 
secreting glands of our bodies work with in- 
creased fervor. Small wonder that rhythm pro- 


[70] 


RHYTHM THE DYNAMICS OF MUSIC 


duces such an electrical effect in our conscious- 
ness, arousing our emotions, and impelling us to 
heightened motor activity. Rhythm, founded 
upon symmetry of structure and motion, pro- 
duces in us a feeling of balance, freedom, well- 
being and power, which can be either purely 
psychic, or can be experienced physically during 
such an activity as dancing. 

In listening to music the ability to note the 
rhythmic groupings of tones enables the mind 
to grasp as distinct units, groups of measures or 
phrases, an ability which will make for rapid 
progress in the appreciation and understanding 
of music. This feeling for the rhythmic pattern 
of a composition permits the mind to anticipate 
the magnitude of the units of a work and thus 
makes it possible for the listener to ease the 
effort and strain of attention at the strategic 
moment and thus delay the appearance of fa- 
tigue when listening to complex musical forms. 
Rhythm, in addition to being an integral ele- 
ment of a composition, may become a means 
for grasping and retaining the import of the 
whole musical creation. 

At times as we have stood at the base of 
some great cathedral, and our eyes have swept 
upward delineating swiftly the beautiful tracery 
and design of the structure until they have 
traveled to the apex of the towering spires, we 


[71] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


have felt as though stone had taken wings and 
had soared to pierce the heavens, as though 
matter had become spirit under the subtle power 
of the architect’s will and imagination. So in 
music, when our ear has grasped the animating 
theme of a work and has followed its dazzling 
rhythmic development, through its towering 
climaxes, and majestic pinnacles of tone figures, 
we have felt as though our inward self had 
become sheer energy to grapple victoriously 
with our multifarious problems. 

Close attention to the rhythmic elements of 
a composition, will enable one to penetrate more 
deeply into the subtle realm of musical dyna- 
mics, to discover rhythm within rhythm, sys- 
tem within system, elusive, provocative, and 
fascinating, ever suggestive of more mysterious 
and beauteous effects. 


THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY 


To many people music means a melody, a 
tune or an air. Music without melody is to 
many unthinkable, and yet in some of the later 
modern forms of music we shall find superb 
compositions almost wholly devoid of melody, 
or with melody greatly subordinated, and still 
productive of beautiful musical effects on the 
listener. 

[72] 


THE NATURE AND ORIGIN OF MELODY 


Melody has been defined as ‘“‘a well ordered 
succession of single sounds, producing a unified 
effect.”’ By another, it has been termed “‘the 
golden thread that runs through music.” It cor- 
responds to the pattern that is found in decora- 
tive designs, the plot in a story or drama, or 
the arrangement of figures and details in paint- 
11.2. 

As rhythm grew out of the instinct for the 
periodic movements and gestures of the human 
body, so melody undoubtedly evolved from the 
expressive cries of the lowly savages. 

It is still possible to find among the least 
developed savage tribes examples of a kind of 
music that consists of little more than impulsive 
cries or expressive howls, utterly without any 
sign of the definite intervals or patterns that 
are found in the higher forms of music. As 
soon as well-defined, pleasing intervals appear, 
however, these little fragments of melody, per- 
haps of only two or three tones, are repeated 
an interminable number of times, until this 
repetition palls on the dull imagination of the 
savage. He then instinctively demands a 
change in rhythm or intensity, in key or tone 
arrangement, and attempts a departure from 
‘ the original pattern. Thus these small phrases, 
which have become stereotyped, are rearranged 
or combined with other phrases, and there ap- 


[73] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


pears the beginning of a tune or a design or 
pattern in melody. 


DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES 


The following fragment taken from a war 
song of the Mafulus on the coast of British 
New Guinea shows the achievement of a single 
musical figure which is repeated over and over 
again: 


a 


From the Negroes of West Africa comes a 
formula one step further advanced; the repeti- 
tion of the motive one semi-tone lower. 


Fe 
Coe 


In the following is shown the contrast of 
two entirely different figures: 


DESIGN IN PRIMITIVE MELODIES 


This design is lacking in symmetry and the 
real impulse of the singers appears to have been 
to derive pleasure from the sense of contrast 
between the two little figures by singing one 
until it becomes monotonous and then as a 
relief singing the second until that too palls on 
their ears. Examination of much of the music 
of savages reveals numerous examples of this 
childish simplicity, incoherent rambling, and 
lack of design in their melody, with a conse- 
quent impression of monotony and dullness. 
The savage’s lack of mental power apparently 
renders the formulation of more complex 
phrases and balanced design impossible. 

Many of the savage races have not mastered 
the simultaneous combination of the two func- 
tions of the human vocal organs, that of speech 
and song. Usually their tunes are without 
words, consisting merely of meaningless sounds, 
or if words are used they are unintelligible 
gibberish. The presence of melody does not 
mean the use of poetry, for often tunes are 
current among savage tribes whose language is 
so elementary in its development that poetry is 
impossible. Sometimes songs are passed from 
one tribe to another, whose members are utterly 
ignorant of the meaning of the syllables which 
they have learned. ‘The North American In- 
dians, however, even in early times were far 


[75] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


enough advanced to combine the use of melody 
and intelligible words. 


FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY 


These rudimentary forms in music, which we 
have just discussed, illustrate the fundamental 
law of all progress in the arts—that design and 
form are necessary to all varieties of artistic 
expression; that balance and ya are es- 
sential for adequate results. 

In sculpture, painting, and architecture, the 
presence of design and absolute necessity for 
it are obvious, but in music, where the necessity 
is equally imperative, design is not so apparent, 
and to most people may seem either superflu- 
ous, or merely the expression of a harmless 
obsession on the part of the composer. But, 
as we shall see, expression and form must go 
hand in hand. Without a compact, balanced 
structure in musical composition, the desired 
musical effect cannot be produced in the mind 
of the listener. All forms of musical composi- 
tion, from the simplest little folk-song to the 
most majestic and complex symphonies of Bee- 
thoven and ['schaikowsky, must obey some law 
of organization and design. 

The simple melody and folk song illustrate 
an intermediary stage of development between 


[76] 


FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY 


the uncouth songs of barbarians and the finished 
products of musical genius. A rapid analysis 
of the elements of design of the simple melody 
will enable us to comprehend the principles of 
structure of music in general, and will also give 
us a deeper understanding of our precious heri- 
tage of folk music. 

An examination of even the simplest of 
melodies reveals the existence of distinct group- 
ings of notes, which, with varying degrees of 
skill or conscious art, are combined and ar- 
ranged to produce different effects. Some of 
these groups of notes appear again and again 
and are separated by contrasting groups, which 
perform the same function in song and music 
as the component phrases and clauses of a 
sentence do in speech. Musicians have classi- 
fied and named these groups of notes. What 
in speech or writing is termed a sentence, in 
music is called a period. 

A period represents a complete musical idea, 
which, in its simplest form, usually consists of 
two balanced phrases. Each phrase, which 
usually contains four measures, is divided into 
two parts called sections, each of which in turn 
is composed of motifs. The first phrase gives 
rise to a feeling of incompleteness or unrest, 
because the close (usually on the dominant 
chord) asks a question, arouses uncertainty or 


[77] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


agitation, that is answered or satisfied in the 
following phrase (ending on the tonic). So 
here within the space of eight measures we find 
balance, contrast, and variety. Below is an ex- 
ample of a little one-period song: 


Snickenhus 


Although this single period form sufficed for 
the expression of a simple mood or emotion, 
its small compass and monotony, through neces- 
sity for repetition, prevented its use in songs 
expressing the more mature and complex emo- 
tions. Singers began to grope about for a 
means of extending the range of expression. A 
partial solution of the difficulty was found in 
the simple expedient of adding a second period 
to the first. To insure unity the second period 
had to be related to its predecessor in spirit and 
usually took its form as well as some detail of 
the principal strain or motif. Its special con- 
tribution, however, was the element of contrast 
and variety, which is the basis for the construc- 

[78] 


FORM IN SIMPLE MELODY 


tion of the simple melody. It is best exempli- 
fied in the regular forms of the German and 
English folk songs. Irregularities are, how- 
ever, frequently met with in many Hungarian 
folk songs as well as those of Russia and other 
countries, where we find periods containing sec- 
tions of three, four, or even five measures. 

The lovely old English air, “Drink to Me 
Only With Thine Eyes,” is a perfect example 
of the binary, or two-period form. The first 
period, A A’, ends with the word “wine,” and 
the second period, B A” with “thine.” ‘The first 
phrase A ends with the word “mine,” the sec- 
ond phrase A’ with ‘‘wine,”’ the third phrase B 
with “divine,” and the fourth phrase A” with 
the word “‘thine.’’ We observe that although it 
actually contains four phrases, there are really 
only two different phrases here. If we repre- 
sent these two phrases as A and B respectively, 
we discover that the arrangement is as follows, 
A ABA. Such is the typical scheme of ar- 
rangement in simple melodies. The exact repe- 
tition of phrase A gives the effect of assurance, 
while the appearance of phrase B (note its 
more irregular form) introduces the contrast- 
ing element of agitation and suspense. The 
final reiteration of phrase A reestablishes the 
first feeling of confidence and final complete- 
ness. Hum this melody and note the contrast- 


[79] 


Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes 


Sd 


(A) Drink to me on - ly’ with thine eyes, 


And I will pledge with mine, 


(A!) Or leave a_ kiss with - in the cup, 


BRI WLS NER Luho 
sures meneame so 

dp 
And Till not ask for 


wine; 


ae 


(B) ‘The thirst that from the soul doth rise, 


———— 
we 9 ep 


Doth ask a drink di - vine; 


(A'') But might I of love’s nec - tar sip, 


a HEE 


pace 
I would not change for thine. 


SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS 


ing spirit of phrase A and B. “All Through 
the Night,” “Believe Me, If all those Endear- 
ing Young Charms” are other familiar examples 
of this same plan. 

In “Old Folks at Home’ in which the struc- 
ture is A A B A, a cadence is introduced to 
insure variety. Then there are other arrange- 
ments of the two-phrase song as in ‘““Massa’s in 
de Cold, Cold Ground,’ where itis AA AA 
BA. In “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep” 
the scheme is AA BAA. 

The reader is urged to work out this simple 
plan of analysis in a number of songs and culti- 
vate this power of analysis until it becomes 
habitual. This practice will develop a deeper 
understanding of musical compositions, and in- 
crease markedly one’s powers of memorization. 


SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS 


Another method of analyzing any composi- 
tion is to classify the tonal combinations accord- 
ing to their position and sequence on the staff, 
that is, according to their horizontal arrange- 
ment. ‘Thus in the example below we have a 
song whose phrases in measures I-5 and 9-13 
consist of some tones of the same pitch re- 
peated, combined with short sections of the 
scale, that is, tones in the same sequence as the 


[81] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


scale of the key of the song in measures 2-3—6— 
7—-I0—II—I4—-I5. 


Teach Us to Pray 
Moderato 


God Vi Whose tues cle en - folds us 


Gregorian Chant 


: SS nO | 
eT 


Thy lov-ing kind- ness waits our 


gis gee eee 


Teach Thy chil - dren how to pray, 


SS 


Thus bring-ing guid-ance day by 


Observe that there is no place in the whole 
melody where the skip from one note to the 
other is more than one tone higher or lower. 
In other words, there is in the whole song not 
an interval, that is, a skip in pitch of two or 
more tones. 
Then turn back to page 80 and examine 
“Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes’ and 
note the repeated tones in the first measure, the 
scale track (that is the tones follow each other 


[82] 


SIMPLE TONAL ELEMENTS 


as they would in the scale) in the second meas- 
ure, and in the third measure a jump from B 
flat to E flat, which is termed a chord skip or 
interval. Note in the ninth measure the fact 
that here the melody indulges in four chord 
skips, which gives one a feeling of agitation or 
increased emotional tension, and that this is 
diminished as soon as the thirteenth measure 
and the ensuing two phrases are reached. In 
the Gregorian Chant, with its smoothly flowing 
melody, devoid of all skips, we do not experi- 
ence this agitation, but only solemnity and state- 
liness. 

In these two songs we find examples of three 
tonal arrangements—(1) the repeated tone, 
(2) the scale track, and (3) the chord track. 
Examination of all forms of music will reveal 
that they can all be resolved into these three 
simple kinds of combinations. In the cultiva- 
tion of a musical memory this knowledge will 
be of great benefit in fixing clearly the pitch 
scheme of various melodies, and thus develop- 
ing a feeling for the melodic trend of a song. 
It is astonishing how such an analysis will 
simplify the memorization of a melody if this 
visual imagining is combined with aural recog- 
nition also. It is a good plan to analyze a 
number of melodies in this manner. 


[83] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


UNITY OF MOOD OF A SONG 


Involved in this whole principle of design 
and organization in a song is the element of 
unity. Each song dramatizes a certain mood 
or feeling, and, because of this, possesses its 
own distinctive mood, feeling tone, or atmos- 
phere. This fact is very evident when we 
play or sing a tune, or listen to the actual per- 
formance of a song. The principle holds good 
for all other forms of music as well. During 
the next sonata, symphony, or violin concerto 
you hear, note how each composition strikes and 
maintains a distinctive feeling tone. 

If we but consider some examples of the 
simple folk song we shall discover immediately 
that a distinctive mood or feeling is embodied 
in their lovely musical messages. 

Let us again turn to that beautiful little 
melody “Drink To Me Only With Thine 
Eyes.” Sing, play, or hum it through two or 
three times. Note the unity of the emotional 
and musical effect on your mind. Observe that 
as soon as you have sung the first measure you 
have caught the atmosphere of the song, you 
are aware even then of its peculiar charm and 
individuality and as you progress you note that 
this feeling is accentuated and when the end 
of the song has been reached it appears quite 

[84] 


FEELING FOR KEY OF A SONG 


fixed and permanent. Its feeling message, gra- 
cious and appealing, seems to have taken perma- 
nent lodgment in your heart. 

This unity of effect is discovered in all real 

works of art, and especially in music. The 
peculiar fascination of music is that this essen- 
tial unity is capable of such great variation of 
treatment. The feeling effect of ‘Dixieland’ 
is much different from “Drink To Me Only 
With Thine Eyes.’ It is gay and animated, 
full of rollicking good humor, and the whole 
song is permeated with a unified feeling atmos- 
phere. In “Holy Night’ we observe a totally 
different atmosphere—serene and _ soothing, 
transfused with tenderness, yet borne along 
rhythmically on a substratum of confidence and 
faith. 
/ ‘In all listening one should always strive to 
/ detect and absorb one’s self in the characteristic 
-mood or feeling tone of a composition. This is 
_a fundamental principle of either performance 
or listening. To neglect it is to miss the essence 
of music. 


FEELING FOR KEY OF A SONG 


One of the primary musical effects to be noted 
in any musical composition is the feeling for the 
key. In the simple song a modulation or change 


[85] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


of key is rare, but when we come to the consid- 
eration of the art song we shall find this oc- 
curring frequently. Even in such cases there is 
usually a return to the original key. Thus in 
learning to sing, hum, or play a song it is 
extremely important for one to feel and con- 
sistently cling to the feeling for the key. Most 
songs end on a key-note, or home tone, as it 
is sometimes called. Very often a phrase or a 
melodic unit in the body of a song will end on 
a key-note. and one then experiences for a 
moment a feeling of repose. For example, at 
the last note of the first score in “Drink To 
Me Only With Thine Eyes,” the word “mine” 
is on the note E flat, the key-note of the song. 
“Wine” and “thine” are also sung on the key- 
note of the song, which you will observe, gives 
a feeling of repose. Sometimes a song will be- 
gin on a key-note, but more often, on the third 
or the fifth note above the key-note. ‘The feel- 
ing for key is another of the basic elements in 
the process of memorizing melody, and in the 
cultivation of a musical memory. 


THE RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY 


Rhythmic patterns, as well as pitch patterns, 
are repeated in a melody. Observe in “Dixie- 
land,” with its two-four meter, the repetition 

[86] 


THE RHYTHMIC PATTERN IN MELODY 


of the sixteenth notes in the first, fourth, ninth, 
and twelfth measures, the recurrence of the 
dotted eighth note with its complementary 
sixteenth note, and the preliminary triplet six- 
teenth notes in the chorus. This quick, sharp, 
rhythmic pattern is largely responsible for the 
buoyancy and dash of this melody. 

Note the rhythmic scheme in “Drink To Me 
Only With Thine Eyes’; the flowing 6-8 
meter, the first three-eighth notes, and then the 
quarter note with a short eighth note completing 
the measure. ‘This pattern is present in the 
Ist, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, roth, rth, 13th and 
15th measures... Not only that, but the rhythmic 
patterns in the 2nd, 6th and 14th measures are 
identical. This rhythmic symmetry aids de- 
cidedly in maintaining a unity of feeling tone. 

In the magnificent melody used in the hymn 
“How Firm a Foundation,’ the 4-4 meter, 
with its regular march-like accentuation, and 
rhythmic pattern consisting of a half note plus 
two quarter notes alternating with four quarter 
notes, gives it a stately, confident rhythm, like 
the advancing tramp of an invincible host of 
warriors. 

Marches are usually written in 2-4 or 4-4 
meter, a meter equally divisible by two to indi- 
cate the rapid, successive steps of the person 
marching. Lullabies, boat songs, love songs, 


[87] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


songs of longing and peacefulness, are written 
in 6-8, 3-4 or 3-8 meter, which is less sharply 
accented in its rhythm. The dances of various 
countries have their distinctive rhythms. Recall 
the rhythmic peculiarities of the Irish jig, the 
Italian tarantelle, the Spanish fandango, and 
the Hungarian czardas. The rhythmic scheme 
of a composition plus its tempo exercises an 
almost autocratic control over its general feel- 
ing tone. 


THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION 


In the singing, instrumental performance, or 
hearing of any composition one cannot escape 
observing its emotional background, or a feel- 
ing tone. Because music is so very slightly imi- 
tative of external nature in its essential spirit 
and in its structure as well, it appears to voice 
more directly and infinitely more effectively the 
magic play of the human consciousness than any 
other medium now at man’s disposal. 

Unless a song or a musical composition pos- 
sesses the power of infecting with its own con- 
tagiousness the heart of the listener, it is not 
worth the effort nor time to rehearse it. Unless 
a song touches a sympathetic chord in the heart 
of the listener and moves him in some vital, 
pleasurable way, it is a waste of time for his 


[88] 


EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION 


ears to transmit the vibrations to his conscious- 
ness. This does not mean that the music neces- 
sarily be agitating or exciting, for there exists 
in the human imagination a gamut of emotions 
and subtle nuances of feeling that is practically 
inexhaustible in power, range, and variety.‘ 

Music is a portrayal of a mood, the drama- 
tization of a feeling tone. The effects of music 
are enjoyed as representations of genuine 
emotions. They furnish the greatest of all 
educational influences—the opportunity to gain 
spiritual stimulation and development without 
any harmful reactions of the material and ex- 
ternal world. 

The emotional reactions from music and per- 
sonal emotions are entirely different. Musical 
emotions are personal reactions to impersonal 
interests. Personal emotions are personal re- 
actions to personal interests. To illustrate, so- 
called somber and sad music does not produce 
a condition of actual somberness or sadness, 
does not induce a real state of mental depres- 
sion, which would uniformly lead to unhappi- 
ness and discontent, but sublimates the actual 
emotion, translating it into the world of ro- 
mance and poetry, idealizing and refining the 
reality. Indeed, sad music artistically per- 


See Volume V, “The Art of Listening.” 
[89] 


SIMPLE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC 


formed, will bring the greatest satisfaction and 
the fullest response, no matter how profoundly 
the listener or the performer may be stirred by 
a particular mood for the time being. “Old 
Black Joe,’ the wail of a poor negro who has 
lost his home and his all, and nothing could be 
more pathetic and mournful, is merely an artis- 
tic portrayal of pathos and misery. And one 
who sings a negro spiritual does not take on its 
frenzied and fantastic religious mood, but 
merely its art simulation. 

In the countries of sorrow and oppression 
nearly all of the songs of the people are plain- 
tive and sad. ‘These songs serve, not to in- 
tensify and more deeply establish these condi- 
tions in the lives of the people, but as an outlet 
for feeling, a reaction to the real conditions of 
sorrow and sadness which they portray. And 
so of every song that is worth singing. It pro- 
duces a mood of its own which takes the singer 
away from the literal and actual life mood for 
the time being, refining, beautifying, and re- 
storing him atter the wear and tear of real 
moods and real life conditions. Thus, music 
has real art value and consequently genuine 
educational significance according to the degree 
of emotional reaction derived from performing 
or listening to music. 

It will be apparent to every thoughtful per- 

| [90] 


EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND REACTION 


son that the important matter in music educa- 
tion is carefully to guard, nourish, and develop 
the aesthetic quality of the emotional reaction. 
Every other consideration should be subordi- 
nated to this end. 


[91] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


Buck, Percy Carter. Acoustics for Musicians. 
Oxford, Clarendon Press. 

GEHRKENS, Kart W. Musical Notation and Ter- 
minology. New York, The A. S. Barnes Co. 

Grove. Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Article: 
“Notation.” Rhythm, Accent, Metre, etc. New 
York, The Macmillan Co. 

GuRNEyY, EpMonp. ‘The Power of Sound. London, 
Smith, Elder & Co. 

HAMILTON, CLARENCE §. Sound, and its Relation to 
Music. Boston, O. Ditson & Co. 

LavicNac, ALBERT. Music and Musicians. New 

York, H. Holt & Co. 

Lussy. A Short Treatise on Musical Rhythm. Lon- 
don, Vincent Music Co. 

WILLIAMS, CHARLES FrANcIs Appy. ‘The Story of 
Music Notation. London, The W. Scott Publish- 
ing Co. 

WILLIAMS, CHARLES FrRANcIS Aspy. The Rhythm 
of Modern Music. London, The Macmillan Co. 


[92] 


< 
= 
<< 
=>) 
c 
+ 
2 
oO 
= 
nel 
= 
u. 
oO 
> 
= 
wv 
c 
LA 
= 
= 
a 


co01 v001 
MUSICAL ART NEW YORK 


NNN 


FUNDAMENTALS OF 


780F 962 


Ml 


18317 


12 0145 


| 


